In Arx Aurea
by Shooting Jewel
Summary: Ginny does a transfer trip to another school for a year, and Draco is ordered by his father to go as well. Arx Aurea is Latin for Golden Castle. Dedicated to Fallen Phenoix, this is strictly DG. chapter 10 up
1. Not a Baby

In Arx Aurea  
  
This story is dedicated to FALLEN PHENOIX, because she is not only a really good friend, but also an amazing writer, so check out her stories! Also, last week was her birthday, so this is a sort of a present to her. SoooâE¦ this is as good as I can possibly get, so please don't flame me, I'm trying my hardest!  
  
Now about the story: It's D/G, because I think Draco is the best of them all, and the beginning will be Hogwarts, though later on the location will be something quite different (though similar). The story starts at the end of the school year in which Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco are in fifth year, and Ginny is in fourth year. Oh, and forgive all the Latin I'm putting into this. I have to study it, so it's just stuck in my brain! Plus, I think it's really cool, actually. So, without further ado, the first chapter:  
  
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Not a baby  
  
'At the Arx Aurea Institute of Magic, our students get the best education possible in a variety of different aspects of the wizarding world, including subjects such as Spells, Levitational Dance, Mythological Magic, Divination, etc. We value all of the arts highly and teach a selection of them in combination with ordinary magical skills. A lot of our students are presently working in several different ministries of magic around the world, as well as being in the educational field of wizardry, and we have our own Quidditch team as well as our own Levitational Dance Company, both of which have won international acclaim. We do not reinforce any of the Dark Arts in any imaginable way, and they are highly rejected at our - Mr Creevy, if you can't stop making your pet miniature frogs hop about the classroom while I'm reading an important brochure, then I suggest you don't take them to classes with you!'  
  
Professor McGonagall glared intensely at the young boy, now looking slightly guilty. His two miniature frogs, each of them bright red, hopped down from the brochure she was reading to the class, and disappeared in his bag.  
  
Minerva McGonagall still didn't look very pleased, but she contented herself by glaring at Colin Creevy one last time before addressing the class again.  
  
'Now, remember, this transfer opportunity is only available for the students who will be in fifth or sixth year next year. The younger students are too young to be going to an entirely different school, and the seventh years must prepare for their graduation from Hogwarts.' She paused, looking at the faces of the students before her. 'I will speak to the fifth year Gryffindors in their Transfiguration class after lunch, so that all of the Gryffindors who will be within the age limit (15-16) next year are informed. Any questions regarding a plausible transfer?' she asked her fourth year students.  
  
Kevin, Colin's best friend, raised his hand immediately.  
  
'What the hell is Levitational Dance anyway?' he demanded, without even waiting for the Professor to call on him. The class laughed at his audacity, while the teacher pursed her lips disapprovingly.  
  
'I myself have never seen a Levitational Dance production', she admitted, hesitantly. 'But they say there is quite a lot of skill involved. Though frankly - I don't see how it could possibly be of much importance in everyday life.'  
  
A girl put up her hand.  
  
'Yes, Miss Timbrels?'  
  
'Why is the school called Arx Aura, or whatever it was? I don't see the point.' the girl said.  
  
'Yeah, give me a good name like 'Hogwarts' anytime!' came a shout from the other end of the room, which sounded suspiciously like Colin Creevy.  
  
This time, McGonagall ignored him. 'The reason for calling the school Arx Aurea', she explained, with added emphasis on the 'e', 'is because it is Latin for 'Golden Castle'. I suppose that the school does look similar to a golden castle, though I can't verify that point, seeing as I have never been there. Alright, any last minute questions? The lesson will be over in a minute.'  
  
Another girl raised her hand, cautiously.  
  
'Miss Weasley?'  
  
Ginny Weasley hesitated a little. 'Do you need your parents' permission?' she asked defiantly.  
  
Professor McGonagall was shocked; usually Ginny was a very sensible student who wouldn't ask questions like this.  
  
'Miss Weasley, of course you need your parents' permission. An exchange trip like this is something that is not to be taken lightly, as it is for a whole year. I thought you, of all people, would know that.'  
  
The young redhead's face darkened, as if the teacher had pointed out a very unpleasant fact about her. As the bell rang, she was the first to jump up and leave the classroom, with McGonagall still staring after her in a surprised way. What had gotten into little Ginny?  
  
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Ginny Weasley sat dismally at the lunch table, listening to the aimless chatter around her. She had purposely chosen to sit near her brother and his friends instead of her fellow fifth years.  
  
Hermione Granger turned around to her kindly, obviously thinking she was depressed because they were leaving her out of their conversation. 'So, Ginny, did you start studying for the end-of-term exams yet?' she asked pleasantly.  
  
Ginny played around with her fork a little, and shook her head, occupied with other matters. Finally she spoke.  
  
'Have you guys heard that there's going to be an exchange trip to this other Institute of Magic?' she asked casually.  
  
Ron looked up from his casserole, mildly interested. 'No', he answered. 'Probably McGonagall is going to tell us about it in our Transfiguration class. Hope she doesn't get to quiz us on our test reviews.' he added, looking hopeful. Hermione shoved him and glared at him severely.  
  
Harry, to distract Ron and Hermione and keep them from fighting, remarked: 'That might be neat; all those people from another school coming here. They'll probably be really different, and it's interesting to see what their uniforms look like. Remember the people from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang?' At this, he looked over at his friends and grinned.  
  
Ginny spoke up quickly. 'No, it's not like that; it's only one way. We go there, but they don't come here.'  
  
'What? That's boring!' Ron complained. 'It's not like any of us are going over there.'  
  
'If - if one of us - wanted to - well, go to that school for a year -' Ginny trailed of, catching the puzzled look on her brother's face. 'Would mom and dad let us go?' she asked in a rush, glad to have gotten the words out.  
  
Ron looked startled. 'Well, I suppose they would', he mused. 'But then, it doesn't really matter, does it? I mean, I don't want to go, and that would only leave you, and you don't want to go, do you?' He looked at her quizzically.  
  
'It might be kind of fun', Ginny said in a small voice.  
  
Hermione jumped in to support her. 'Yes, I think it would be fascinating, going to see an entirely different school. I'd like to go, but I'd miss all my friends.' She smiled at Ron and Harry, who grinned back, a little embarrassed.  
  
'Plus, we're already so close to graduation. I really don't want to miss anything important at all. I want to graduate really well.' Hermione added, with a worried frown.  
  
Ron reached over and started on his chocolate pudding dessert. 'That would be the least of my problems. But Ginny, you aren't seriously considering going there, are you?' he asked her suspiciously.  
  
His little sister just shrugged. 'I think it would be a fun change', she insisted.  
  
'If you say so, but I don't think mum and dad will let you go if none of us three are going', Ron informed her.  
  
'Why not?' demanded Ginny, her brown eyes displaying the fierce anger inside her.  
  
'Well, you're still a little baby, there's no way Mum would be comfortable with the idea of you all alone at some other school', Ron remarked casually, not knowing what effect this would have on her.  
  
Ginny sprang up and slammed her fork down onto her plate forcefully, so that a jarring clang emitted.  
  
'I am NOT A BABY!' she shouted furiously. Then she whirled around and strode out of the Great Hall, her red hair streaming behind her.  
  
Ron turned to his friends, confused. 'What did I say?' he asked them, totally bewildered.  
  
'Geez, what's gotten into your ratty little sister these days, Weasley?' a sneering voice asked, making the word 'Weasley' an insult.  
  
'For once mind your own stinking business, Draco Malfoy!' Ron told the fifteen-year-old Slytherin forcefully.  
  
'I'm sure my business smells a lot nicer than yours, Weasley, but that insult still doesn't answer my question. What's with your sister these days?' Draco asked again.  
  
Ron narrowed his eyes at his arch-enemy. 'What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with her!' he told Draco spitefully.  
  
'Oh, yeah? Then I have better eyes than you do. Well, I have better eyes than you do, anyway, but you must be really blind not to notice something that's going on right in front of your ugly nose.' Draco retorted coolly, then turned around and walked away, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.  
  
'You don't think there really is something wrong with Ginny?' Harry asked, still watching Malfoy's retreating back with hatred. 'If even Malfoy has noticed something -'  
  
Ron shook his head determinedly. 'No way, she's just under stress or something. Malfoy is just trying to put us in some sort of trap, I'm sure.'  
  
Hermione was thinking. How come Malfoy would have wanted to know what was wrong with Ginny? Why would he care?  
  
********************************  
  
After their last lesson, Ron, Harry, and Hermione trooped up the stairs and into the Gryffindor common room. There, Hermione gave the two boys each a list of what they had to study and an immense stack of books, much to their displeasure. As they were starting to flip through the pages, Ginny came down from her dormitory and faced them with a determined look on her face.  
  
'What is it now, Gin?' Ron asked irritably, since he was just trying to memorize a complicated potion. 'Shredded newts' tails, Gillyweed - what was the third main ingredient? And then all the side ones! 'll never remember all of this!' he said angrily.  
  
Ginny wasn't side-tracked. 'I want to go to the Arx Aurea Institute of Magic', she announced firmly.  
  
Ron's jaw dropped. 'Mum won't let you', he told her quickly.  
  
Ginny tossed her head. 'I'll make her let me', she told him unwaveringly.  
  
'But - you're too young', Ron protested. Ginny's eyes flashed dangerously. 'No', she contradicted him. 'Professor McGonagall said next year we and you would be the only ones that are allowed to go.'  
  
Harry interrupted. 'Why do you want to go to this school, Ginny?' he asked. 'Aren't you happy at Hogwarts?'  
  
Ron hoped, considering Ginny's admiration for Harry, that she would listen to him, but she didn't.  
  
'Yes, I'm happy here, but I want some change away from overprotective family', she told them blandly. 'I thought it would be better once I was at Hogwarts, but then there were all my brothers to keep me out of trouble', she said mockingly. Then she sighed. 'Oh, please, I just want to know what it would be like to be almost totally independent. I have to learn sooner or later, right?' she pleaded.  
  
Ron couldn't think of anything more to say. 'OK, but I still don't think Mum will be happy with it', he warned her.  
  
Ginny looked at him with superiority. 'I don't care. She'll see my point sooner or later.' With these words, she flounced out of the common room. Ron gazed after her.  
  
'What has gotten into her?' he wondered aloud.  
  
**********************************  
  
Draco dipped his quill in ink thoughtfully. What else was there to write to his father? He was always very picky and wanted to know everything that was going on at the school. If Draco chose not to tell him something, and Lucius Malfoy found out, he would be taken away from Hogwarts secretly every night and tortured for a week.  
  
Suddenly he remembered about the transfer trip. He wrote carefully, in Latin, of course, so almost nobody except his father would know what it meant. (A/N: No, I am NOT going to write the whole paragraph in Latin; frankly, that is way too bothersome for me)  
  
'Also, we have been informed that we have the opportunity to go to another school for a year; the Arx Aurea Institute of Magic. It sounds like a very soft school; no Dark Arts, etc. I doubt they even teach Defence there. I certainly don't want to go.'  
  
As Draco paused, he thought of the curious behaviour of Ginny Weasley he had been noticing for a few weeks now. She was not as gentle anymore; in fact, she often snapped at people, especially if they were trying to help her. She also seemed less friendly to the teachers. Should he tell his father about it? Draco sighed. Either way, there was the likelihood of punishment. If he did write about it, his father would probably chide him for watching dumb things like a Weasley girl, while if he didn't, his father would think he was keeping things away from him. He decided not to put it down. His father didn't like to hear about weak little girls.  
  
Though, lately, Ginny hadn't really been such a 'weak little girl'. She seemed very aggressive, though he didn't know why.  
  
What he also didn't know, was that his father already knew about the transfer school, and was writing this very minute, ordering him to sign up for it. He also didn't know the very grave reason for this.  
  
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I know this isn't a cliffhanger, but if I would wait for the next exciting bit to come up, I would be writing at least five more pages. So, this is the start! Boring, I know, but I have to put down all the important blah- blah stuff. Hope to reach more exciting bits in the next chapter (if there will ever be one; the way I know it, I probably won't get one single review on this story)! Oh, and just so that you know, up to now nothing belongs to me except Arx Aurea and some minor characters. Arx Aurea is thought up entirely by me, as well as the classes, uniforms, etc. It sucks, actually, but let's ignore that fact, shall we? Thanks!  
  
S.J. 


	2. Two enemies joined

Two enemies joined  
  
Hey, I actually got reviews! Don't spoil me, people, I might get all stuck- up *j/k* Well, anyway, about the story: I'm gonna skip the end of the school year, and the summer holidays, because I'd just end up boring you to death, and go straight to the beginning of the new school year, which will be VERY different for our heroes Draco and Ginny. Make way:  
  
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'Ginny! Get up, will you!? It'll be time to leave any minute now!'  
  
Ginny groaned, but dragged herself out of bed. She had forgotten that the summer holidays were over. But she was kind of glad, too, because ever since their big fight, Ginny hadn't been on best terms with her parents. Still, she had won the fight: She was going to the Arx Aurea Institute of Magic starting today!  
  
The excitement woke her up thoroughly, and she hastened to get on a navy blue skirt and a tight white blouse. Observing herself in the mirror, she decided she looked VERY prissy and like a teacher's pet, but she wanted to make a good impression on the first day. All the same, she did add black high-heeled sandals to her outfit, just to make it a little more exciting. Idly, she wondered what robes they would have to wear at the new school. Surely not boring black ones?!  
  
A call from her mother interrupted her musings, and she rushed down the stairs. She had to be on time on this important day.  
  
For convenience's sake, it had been decided that the two Hogwarts students who were going to Arx Aurea would first go to Platform 9-and three- quarters; and from there travel on to their new school. Though Ginny didn't know exactly how they were going to get there, she assumed it wouldn't be too different from what she was used to.  
  
'Hey, Ginny, I just noticed something.' Ron called to her as she entered the kitchen to have breakfast in response to her mother's impatient call. He was studying the letter that his sister had received with details about the transfer.  
  
'It says in this letter that there are TWO Hogwarts students that are going to the other school. Who is the other one?' he asked curiously.  
  
'That's what I was planning to ask you', she told him. 'It must be somebody from your grade, otherwise I'd know.'  
  
Harry, who had spent the first few weeks of the holidays with Hermione, and the last ones with Ron, entered the kitchen. 'Who must be from our grade?' he asked unceremoniously.  
  
'Good morning to you, too', replied Ginny sarcastically. Harry looked up, surprised, for he wasn't used to being snubbed by Ginny, the very girl who adored him - or so he supposed.  
  
Ginny started guiltily, wondering how she could have done something like this to her hero, Harry Potter himself. He had just seemed like one of her brothers for a second: one of the family with whom she could exchange insults and snide comments freely. And, thinking about it, that was EXACTLY what Harry was to her - and had been for a long time, had she only realized - a family member, no less, but definitely no more.  
  
She felt a little wave of loneliness rush through her, coming to face the fact that her crush on Harry Potter had dwindled down into brotherly affection and did not exist any more. It was as if one of her old friends had suddenly left her; one of her most precious dreams had floated off. But she didn't even mind very much; after all, she was setting off on a new life at the Arx Aurea school, free from being overshadowed and having every part of her life meddled with by a bunch of insensitive brothers. She would miss them - but the excitement of her trip didn't die. And the old and well- worn fancy for her brother's friend was just one of the things of her old life she was letting go of.  
  
Fred and George suddenly appeared in the small kitchen, both having apparated from their bedroom, now that they could do it, but their judgement had not been too good, for Fred landed on top of the kitchen table; his feet inches away from Ron's fingers, while George was standing on top of the stove, hopping up and down as one of his feet made contact with a hot element. They had both already graduated from Hogwarts, but had gotten up early to say goodbye to their younger brother and sister and Harry.  
  
'Do you mind?! You're standing in my breakfast!' a thoroughly irritated Ron yelled at Fred.  
  
'No, I don't mind at all. In fact, this is such a comfortable position, I'll probably spend the rest of my life here.' Fred retorted sarcastically, and then leaped down from the table, taking a cup and a jar of jam down with him.  
  
'Boys!' stormed a very mad Molly Weasley, who had just appeared in the doorway. 'Fred, clean that mess up. George, stop your hysterical hopping and get off my stove.'  
  
Ginny sighed in exasperation as George, taking a flying leap, landed in the jam that had come out of the jar when it broke, and started cursing it in the worst swearwords he could come up with. Sometimes her brothers were highly amusing, but sometimes they were just too much.  
  
*********************  
  
As the Weasleys and Harry pushed onto Platform Nine-and-three- quarters, Ginny looked around eagerly, waiting to see how she would be transported to Arx Aurea. The scarlet Hogwarts Express was there, and students were crowding into it, laughing and chatting to each other happily, with nothing out of the ordinary.  
  
But a little way off was something out of the ordinary. Ginny gasped in surprise and admiration at what looked like a gigantic golden sparkling globe hovering a foot over the ground, with a glittering sign reading 'The Arx Aurea Sedes Aeris'.  
  
(A/N: Yes, this is Latin again. Literally means 'The Golden Castle's Air Seat', but since that sounds absolutely dumb, I'll just use the Latin)  
  
'Man, Ginny, are you going to travel in that thing?! Looks really weird, doesn't it?' Ron had come to stand beside his little sister and gazed at the Sedes Aeris in fascination. A lot of other students had noticed the peculiar transport and were crowding around it in awe.  
  
Suddenly a section of the wall in the globe slid open, and a young woman wearing shimmering white robes and a lot of make-up emerged. She looked disdainfully at the busy platform, but then pointed her wand at her throat and muttered something. When she spoke, her voice rang loudly around the station:  
  
'Is there a Miss Virginia Weasley to go to the Arx Aurea Institute present?'  
  
Ginny was too dazed by the whole excitement and the sudden silence to say anything, and the woman glanced down at her piece of parchment to see if she had the right name. Ron nudged Ginny impatiently, and she timidly raised her hand and said: 'Yes, I'm Ginny Weasley.'  
  
The woman smiled quite kindly at her and told her, still in the magically reinforced voice to come up to her. Ginny hastily grabbed her brother and Harry in a quick goodbye hug (she had already said goodbye to her parents and the brothers who were not going) and, pulling along her trunk, started off through the parting crowd.  
  
When the woman spoke again, she though at first that she must have heard wrong and looked up, puzzled.  
  
'And is there a Mr Draco Malfoy present, also to attend Arx Aurea?'  
  
Her worst fears were confirmed. Smoothly making his way through the people was Draco Malfoy, with a bored, superior, and disgusted look on his face.  
  
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Draco wished the people would stop staring at him and whispering in hushed voices. He was not having a good day, besides the fact that he was now safe from his father's tortures for another year. His entire summer holiday had been spent arguing against the fact of sending him to that wimpy school; in other words, fighting a losing battle. His father's mind was made up, no matter how much Draco tried to persuade him that would be POINTLESS, not to mention utterly HUMILIATING to go to a school like that. The only thing he had gotten from his protests was a burning pain all through his body from daily Cruciatus curses.  
  
And now, just when he had been gloomily thinking that at least life couldn't get any worse, he suddenly found himself with a sworn enemy as a companion on his journey.  
  
He smirked at the horrified expression on Ginny Weasley's face. She probably had exactly the same feelings about it as he did.  
  
The dumb woman in the appalling robes was beckoning them both into the Sedes Aeris. Draco, having shunned the saying 'Ladies first' unless it was to an unknown danger or possible death all his life, strode in front of Ginny in a superior way, and climbed into the golden globe. He heard the girl and the woman getting in behind him, but was too stunned by the interior design of the transport to take much notice of them.  
  
He was standing in what looked like an old-fashioned reception room , except that there was a beautiful marble fountain and sunken pool in the middle of it. Glittering chandeliers lit the bright golden room, and he could see silken couches at the back wall, strewn with brilliantly coloured cushions.  
  
A gasp of delight came from behind him, and Ginny slipped past him to the ivory carved statues adorning the corners of the room. So like a girl, he thought disgustedly, but at the same time his curiosity was roused by the intricate details on the faces of the statues.  
  
'Please make yourself comfortable. We shall lift off very soon.' the smiling woman told them, before stepping outside again.  
  
Draco glanced at her scathingly, but flopped down on the nearest couch and leant back on the cushions. He had to admit, they did feel comfortable.  
  
Ginny sat down reluctantly (on the couch that was farthest away from him), as she wanted to examine the statues more closely, but soon discovered a brochure of the Arx Aurea Institute on a little coffee table beside the couch, and flipped through it interestedly.  
  
Draco stole a glance at her and frowned in bewilderment. This girl really wanted to go to this school, it was very obvious. But why? She got good grades at Hogwarts, had lots of friends that she seemed to enjoy being with (though Draco thought that he'd rather turn Muggle than stay with them for more than five minutes), and she had her brother who she could always run to if there was something wrong in her perfect little life.  
  
Though, he reflected, still looking at her intensively, her life hadn't seemed perfect in the last few months of school. She had been so different, and he still had no clue what it had all been about. And now she wanted to leave Hogwarts. Why?  
  
Suddenly Ginny glanced up and met his gaze. 'What?' she asked hotly, as if he was criticizing her.  
  
Draco cursed himself inwardly at thinking about her again, when he had a lot of better things to do, and turned away abruptly. Feeling that she was still looking at him in a perplexed way, he said levelly: 'I was just wondering how it must feel sitting on silk couches when what you're used to is the dirt floor. Or have you got chairs at that pile of sticks you call your house?'  
  
The insult was effective. Ginny stared at him, anger flaming in her eyes. 'I'd watch out if I were you, Malfoy', she retorted defiantly. 'I don't think you'll find a lot of idiots stupid to hang around and protect you at this  
  
'strictly no Dark Arts' school; and you certainly seem to be in need of them.'  
  
Draco rolled his eyes at her. 'You've been hanging around Potter and your lowly brother too much. Why do people insist on always insulting me in exactly the same way? It gets boring after a while.'  
  
Ginny just tossed her hair and busied herself with the brochure again. Just then, the witch in the white robes came in again, swished her wand at the walls of the Sedes Aeris and called out: 'Movite trans aerem!'  
  
Draco and Ginny felt the globe gently lifting up into the air, and starting to float off.  
  
The witch turned to them and smiled prettily. 'Now, I'm sure you're very curious about the new school you'll be going to -' at this Draco snorted in contempt - 'and I'll be happy to ask any questions you have about it. Oh, and I'm Professor Kelsey, just so that you know.'  
  
Ginny spoke almost immediately. 'What are the school robes like?' she asked eagerly.  
  
Professor Kelsey's eyes lit up at this question. No doubt she was most interested in the robes, too, Draco thought despairingly. What kind of a school was this?  
  
'Well, the girls traditionally wear white, so I thought I'd also wear white robes to welcome you, but the boys wear black.'  
  
Very relieved, Draco hoped that the robes would be very simple but smart, the way he liked them. 'What subject do you teach?' he asked suspiciously, praying he wouldn't get her as a teacher.  
  
The professor smiled widely. 'I'm the Levitation and Flying teacher, but my specialty is coaching our Levitational Dance company.' she informed him proudly.  
  
Draco groaned inwardly, but Ginny was all on attention-wise. 'How do you do Levitational Dance?' she asked interestedly.  
  
'Oh, it's quite difficult, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that bad. We have a lot of talented dancers in the company, and we've won all sorts of competitions.' Professor Kelsey smiled happily. 'You'll probably get two classes a week, depending on what grade you're in.'  
  
Draco was by now ready to kill himself if this went on. Ginny noticed his disgusted face and giggled. This infuriated Draco even more.  
  
'Are there different houses?' he questioned the professor, mainly to change the subject.  
  
'Oh, yes, there are five different houses; four of them for the corners of the diamond, and one of them in the middle. The middle one is the most demanding house, and it has the least students in it, and - Oh!' she suddenly cried, as the Sedes Aeris gave a great lurch and started to shake.  
  
'What's wrong?' Ginny asked in alarm. Draco glared at her; all he needed was two hysterical females.  
  
'I don't know - it's something very strange - usually we have no problems with these Sedes Aeris, but-' The professor stopped abruptly as another tremor passed through the room.  
  
'All right, that's it! I shall have to apparate and get someone to help us. You two -' she fixed them in a surprisingly stern gaze, 'must stay here and not move! Understand?' she asked them authoratively.  
  
Draco and Ginny both nodded, though Draco was rather reluctant about it, and Professor Kelsey disappeared with a flick of her wand.  
  
Ginny looked at Draco wildly as the globe continued to shake back and forth. Draco felt helpless, and annoyed. 'What do you expect me to do?' he asked nastily. 'Call in Potter so he can pull the brave hero stunt and rescue you? Besides', he added, before he could stop himself, 'it can't be that bad, can it? That professor wouldn't have left us here if it wasn't safe, right?' The second after he said it, he wanted to kick himself for trying to COMFORT a Weasley.  
  
But it was enough to snap Ginny out of her scared state. She resumed her dignity and glared at him, but behind the glare he thought he could see gratitude for having reassured her.  
  
That fact sent his mind reeling. He had never, EVER, received gratitude for showing feelings to anybody. He had just been scolded, lectured, and beaten. But that soft gratitude he had seen in her eyes made him long to do something again, just to see that sight again and to feel that warm feeling inside him, where he had thought it was all frozen, and - STOP IT! He told himself angrily. This is exactly what father has been warning you about ever since you could think: Do not have emotions. They are useless and hinder you in your ambitions.  
  
Then, before any of them could do anything, the lights in the chandelier flickered, and went out, leaving them in utter darkness.  
  
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OK, you can wake up now! Boring story is over! But if you have mercy on poor me and review, I'll honestly try to make it more exciting! And D/G will come into it a.s.a.p.!  
  
My humble thanks to all of you:  
  
oowth - here it is!  
  
Kuro Tsubasa - I agree, D/G is best!  
  
Dracis bitch - I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger.  
  
firecat - thanks for the compliments!  
  
Jimi - yes, I'm so happy!  
  
Monika - sorry, this probably took too long!  
  
Angel of Shadows - thanks!  
  
Ms. Raye Sinic - sorry I was so slow!  
  
Crystal Lily - here you are, the next chapter!  
  
Sangel - I'll try!  
  
Silverfish - thank you, I am!  
  
sassinak - glad you liked it!  
  
blinkinpark182 - well, I can spell, but I'm not so sure the other stuff is true. 


	3. The Golden Castle

The Golden Castle  
  
Whew, I'm getting lots of reviews! Makes me very motivated to continue my story, so I'm hoping I'll get more. *sighs wistfully* Don't mind if this chapter is kind of boring, I have exactly ZERO ideas for an interesting plot right now!  
  
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'NOW WHAT?' Ginny screamed in exasperation. Surrounded by darkness in this ever shaking transport was making her feel very discouraged. The fact that her only companion was Draco Malfoy didn't make things better. Even though he had comforted her when she had been on the brink of hysterics, that had probably just been because he didn't want her to go insane on him.  
  
'Damn it!' Draco cursed out loud. 'My wand is in my trunk, and that idiot of a witch sent it to the school already.'  
  
'Same here', Ginny said frantically. 'What are we going to - ah!'  
  
A very violent jerk of the Sedes Aeris had sent her flying across the softly carpeted floor. Her head knocked forcefully against some hard object it encountered. For a second, her conscience was knocked out, and all she was aware of was a mild throbbing at her temple. Then - her sudden journey was over, but instead of having crashed into the hard wall as she had feared, she felt something soft and warm, and clung to it gladly. It wasn't until her fingers touched his silky hair did she realize it was Draco.  
  
Hastily, she tried to pull herself away from him. But her sudden movement caused her to feel faint, and her head dropped down heavily against Draco's shoulder.  
  
****************************  
  
'What the-'  
  
Draco stopped when he felt something warm seeping from Ginny's head. Brushing aside her soft hair, his fingers discovered an open wound on her temple.  
  
'Oh, fantastic. Just what we needed to put a nice finishing touch on our situation.' he muttered to himself, feeling the sticky blood on his hands.  
  
He was actually feeling very vulnerable without his wand and with an injured girl at his hands. After all, he knew nothing about non-magical healing. Under ordinary circumstances, he would just leave the person on the floor and hope nobody accused him of murdering her. Under ordinary circumstances -  
  
He knew that if he helped Ginny, she would look at him in a grateful way again, probably even more than she had before. And, just for once, he wanted to be smiled at with kindness and gratitude, like Ginny smiled at her brothers, Potter, or Granger whenever they had helped her.  
  
But he couldn't help her. His father would find out, he was sure of that. And the consequences would be more demoralizing lectures, more punishments, and more torturing sessions. Draco felt sick at the thought of it.  
  
How could his father know, though? He certainly wasn't going to tell him, and it wasn't something his father would ask him about when he was under influence of the Veritaserum, or Truth potion. And in his present situation, it seemed a lot worse to let Ginny bleed to death than to face some unsure anger of his father's.  
  
So, he quickly yanked off his sweater (A/N: Don't worry, he has a shirt on underneath that, so things don't get nasty) and held it to the bleeding spot on her head. Anxiously, he wiped the blood off her neck, but otherwise, there wasn't much he could do, save for sitting there.  
  
'Harry?' Ginny spoke in a whisper. For some reason, white-hot anger flooded Draco at the thought that she should take him for Potter. After all, HE wasn't there sacrificing his sweater (which was getting very bloody), not to mention getting his reputation in danger, so that she wouldn't lose all her blood.  
  
'No', he replied curtly. 'It's Draco.' He expected her to scream at the thought of being held by him, but there was just silence for a while. Her face was invisible to him in the darkness, but somehow he had the impression that she was smiling.  
  
In disbelief, he reached down to touch her lips, and felt that she WAS smiling. WHY? He asked himself, utterly confused.  
  
Ginny just said to herself in a dreamy voice: 'Draco. Means dragon in Latin, doesn't it?'  
  
What was she doing? Probably losing her mind, he thought. Maybe it was best to keep her humoured while he was waiting for that dumb witch to come back. But in this shaking Sedes Aeris, and in the dark, it was difficult to do.  
  
He started by answering her question. 'Yeah, it does. My dad named me that because he wanted something that sounded imposing, and meant something like that in Latin, too. Pity I never lived up to his expectations of me.' He stopped short. Why was he telling this to a Weasley? She might be badly wounded and in a funny state, but that was still no excuse.  
  
Draco was suddenly aware that his fingers were still on her lips, and that he'd subconsciously been stroking them while he was talking. Hastily, he jerked his hand away, while at the same time feeling a burning desire to leave it there.  
  
A soft groan was heard from Ginny. 'Don't leave me, Draco', she whispered.  
  
Draco swore silently. HOW could she make him feel like he'd just betrayed her? How could four words from her lips be that expressive?  
  
And she had called him by his first name, he remembered, a glow of warmth alighting in him. But in the next second, he was furious at himself for feeling it. First thing, he chided himself angrily, she is not in her right mind at the moment. Anything she tells me is probably just feverish rambling. And second, I do NOT want her to call me by my first name! Why would I want a worthless, pathetic little Weasley girl calling me by my first name?  
  
No matter how much he tried to tell himself this, his heart still beat faster when she spoke again.  
  
'Draco, you're-' she trailed off into silence.  
  
Eagerly, he bent over her, ignoring all feelings of dignity. 'Yes?' he asked her.  
  
But before she could tell him, the lights went on, and a dozen witches and wizards suddenly apparated all around them. Draco scrambled to his feet, gently putting Ginny down on the floor. He turned to the nearest person, a man in black robes with silver linings.  
  
'What's going on?' he demanded.  
  
The wizard looked at him in horror. 'What happened to you?' he asked, gazing at Draco. When the latter looked down at himself, he could see that his hands were stained with blood.  
  
'She fell down and hurt her head and I had to help her', he explained briefly, gesturing towards Ginny, who was still lying on the floor. 'Now what's going on?'  
  
As if answering his question, the Sedes Aeris stopped shaking and floated on, perfectly smoothly. One of the witches, wearing sparkling golden robes, hurried over to Ginny, and, upon inspecting the wound, pulled a vial out of her robe and poured the potion in it down Ginny's throat. Soon Ginny, looking confused, sat up, and the witch whispered a spell at her temple, where soon just a scar was left.  
  
'Well, whatever Dark wizard that was, he's gone now', one of the wizards stated, putting away his wand.  
  
'That was a Dark wizard?' Draco asked unbelievingly. Why would a Dark wizard try to attack a transport when HE, son of Lucius Malfoy, was in it?  
  
'Had to be', the man answered him grimly. âE~Nobody else would have the guts and the skill to attack one of these.'  
  
Draco made a mental note to write to his father as soon as he could, and find out exactly what was going on.  
  
Ginny looked pale and shaken, but could get to her feet with little help from the witch in the golden robes. 'Are we in danger?' she asked steadily.  
  
The witch smiled at her in a reassuring way. 'No', she told her confidently. 'We have almost reached the Arx Aurea, and nothing can touch you there.'  
  
Draco looked at her with raised eyebrows. He wasn't at all sure that she was speaking the truth, the way he knew his father.  
  
***************************  
  
Ginny was feeling a lot better, but still drowsy and unsure on her feet. The presence of the witches and wizards was very reassuring, and Draco's was somehow, too, even though he was looking distant and withdrawn into himself right now.  
  
Though she could not remember everything that had happened since she had bumped her head, she had seen the bloodstained sweater on the floor, the one that Draco had been wearing. No matter how strange it seemed, Draco Malfoy had tried his best to stop the blood flow. But then, she reminded herself rather subdued, he probably just didn't want blood all over him.  
  
She couldn't recall much else, and it hurt her head to try, so instead she concentrated on watching the twelve people walking about the Sedes Aeris, cleaning up the blood on the floor, and putting the disrupted things back in their places.  
  
Suddenly the transport came to a smooth halt, and one of the witches pointed her wand at the wall.  
  
'Porta monstra!' she said, and an opening was revealed in the wall. Ginny stepped forward eagerly and looked about for the Golden Castle she had been dying to see ever since she heard about it. She wasn't disappointed.  
  
The castle was set on a hill, which rose softly out of mystic pine woods. True to its name, it shimmered golden in an entrancing light, which seemed to encircle the structure with its beauty. High turrets reached up to the sky, and a white banner, with a golden rose and two intertwined A's emblazoned onto it, was attached to one of them. Beyond the castle Ginny could see gardens of flowers and trees, decorated with marble and ivory statues. In front of it, there was a shimmering pool, out of which a beautiful fountain rose. A soft pink fluid gushed out of it.  
  
Still gaping in absolute delight at the new school, Ginny hardly noticed that Draco had also come to the opening until he spoke.  
  
'Don't they have a Quidditch field in this damn place?' he asked resentfully. 'Look, they even have gardens, in this day and age, but no Quidditch field.'  
  
Even though she felt somehow bound to being nice to him after what he had done for her, Ginny turned to him rather sharply.  
  
'You must be blind. See that clearing there?' She pointed to a valley that was a short distance away from the hill. Sure enough, three sparkling hoops on either side marked a spectacular Quidditch field, complete with elaborate stands.  
  
Draco looked mildly interested. 'It's a good size', he acknowledged. 'Bet they aren't nearly as good as we are, though.'  
  
'With WE, did you mean Hogwarts in general, the Slytherin team, or yourself?' Ginny questioned him, frowning.  
  
He shrugged. 'Mostly the Slytherin team', he replied casually. 'Though I admit that some of them are real losers.'  
  
Ginny shook her head. 'And are you forgetting that Gryffindor has won against Slytherin ever since Harry joined the team?'  
  
Suddenly, Draco seemed to lock himself up again. 'I call it luck', he snarled at her, then followed the twelve witches and wizards out of the Sedes Aeris.  
  
Too late, Ginny realized that she had hurt his pride. She hurried after him, but was distracted when they came onto a path whose glassy- looking stones seemed to glow with an intense green light. The witch with the golden robes hung back so she could walk with Ginny.  
  
'Are you sure you're alright? The dizziness might come back', the witch told her anxiously.  
  
Ginny nodded, preoccupied with her own thoughts. 'What is this path made of?' she inquired curiously.  
  
The witch laughed. 'It was an experiment, really', she confided. 'It was supposed to be a glass path that wouldn't break, no matter how much pressure was applied. But', she continued ruefully, 'I suppose the students got bored, and they tried out all kinds of different spells on it, and the result was - well, this.' She gestured at the walkway.  
  
'The girls dubbed it 'Via Formae', and the name stuck.' The witch laughed.  
  
Ginny was mystified. 'What does Via Formae mean?' she asked.  
  
Surprised, the witch turned to her. 'You don't know that much Latin yet? These are pretty basic words.'  
  
'I don't know any Latin, except maybe a few words, and Arx Aurea', Ginny said, glancing up at the teacher anxiously. Was she supposed to?  
  
'Oh, dear. You'll have quite a bit of catching up to do then. Our students have been studying it since their first year, when they were thirteen.'  
  
Ginny quailed at the prospect. 'Can't I get a tutor?' she asked fearfully.  
  
The witch smiled. 'Actually, I could tutor you, if I get enough free time. I am the Latin professor at this school. Oh, how about the young man?' She waved at Draco's back.  
  
Ginny looked resentful. 'He'll do fine', she told the Professor with a sigh. 'His father has been teaching him Latin since he was a little kid, I think.'  
  
'Well, maybe he can help you with your homework when I'm not around', the professor suggested.  
  
Reflecting on this, Ginny was not at all sure if she wanted to be bossed about by a Malfoy while doing her Latin homework, and she was even less sure if Draco would consent to help her.  
  
'Maybe, I guess', she said vaguely.  
  
Just then, they reached the fountain spouting the watery light pink liquid.  
  
'What is THAT?' Draco asked disgustedly.  
  
'It's just for effect, though sometimes a few students put spells on it, so whoever drinks it does so at their own risk. It tastes just like water.' the witch explained. Then she shooed them through the decorated gate, which was covered in sweet-smelling flowers.  
  
When they came inside, Ginny felt as if she had suddenly entered a greenhouse, for beautiful and exotic plants of every colour grew along the walls and were kept in pots at the sides of the hall. Their heavy perfume made her feel light-headed.  
  
At the end of the hallway, there was a thin curtain of water which flowed steadily in a vertical line. Before she could even marvel properly at its beauty, the witch had gently pushed her through it.  
  
Although Ginny felt the brief, refreshing touch of the water, she did not feel any wetness. The water was probably bewitched not to leave a visible mark, but for some reason she felt much more exhilarated than before.  
  
This was soon forgotten, though, when she properly took in her new surroundings. It felt as though she had just entered a treasure cove. The walls were bedecked with jewels and pearls; diamond chandeliers hung from the richly decorated ceiling. Everywhere, the light from the high, elegant windows reflected off rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and many other beautiful stones she had never seen.  
  
'Holy -' Draco gazed around, obviously impressed.  
  
But Ginny was more interested in the students which were seated at tables all around the gigantic room. The teachers obviously sat on a raised platform at the end of the room, while the other tables formed a semi- circle around a spectacular flat diamond in the center, which seemed to outshine everything else.  
  
As Ginny stared at the diamond as if hypnotized, she felt a sudden wave of fiery heat streaming through her body, and her feet didn't seem to be able to hold her anymore. She couldn't see anything clearly anymore, everything went blurry before her eyes, and without any further warning, she collapsed.  
  
******************  
  
Draco saw her falter before anyone else did, and was at her side before even he was aware of what he was doing. So when she collapsed, he caught her deftly and held onto her, trying to straighten her up again. But her head lolled onto his shoulder, and he was powerless to do anything.  
  
'Draco -' she whispered softly, yet with an undeniable accusation in her voice. 'You left me.'  
  
And while Draco stared at her blankly, the witch who had nursed her before came hurrying up to them, and gave her some more of the potion from the vial to drink. In a second, Ginny's eyes snapped back open, and she gazed around, puzzled.  
  
'What happened to me?' she asked.  
  
Draco was still staring at her. He couldn't get the words she had spoken to him out of his head. Finally, he jerked out of it.  
  
'You fainted', he told her abruptly. 'Onto me', he added.  
  
'Oh'. Ginny looked embarrassed. 'Sorry about that.' But in her eyes he could see the gratitude again, though her confusion shadowed it.  
  
'Well, since you're OK again, come here. You have to be put into a house, don't you?' The witch led them quickly over to the center diamond.  
  
Draco looked around at the five tables encircling the giant diamond in the middle of the floor. Was there an equivalent to Slytherin house at this school? It didn't look like it.  
  
'Alright, everybody. These are the transfer students from Hogwarts. They will be sorted into their houses now, and I want each and every one of you, and particularly their fellow house mates, to welcome them.' A witch had stood up from her seat at the head of the teachers' table, and was making a speech.  
  
'Now, there are five houses: Liberalitas, the top left side of the diamond, Forma, the top right side, Disciplina, the bottom right side, Fortitudo, the bottom left side, and Fortuna, the middle of the diamond. You will be chosen according to what section of the diamond lights up when you stand on it.' She waved at Draco and Ginny: 'Let's start with Draco Malfoy!'  
  
Draco shot Ginny a glance. She just smiled at him encouragingly, even though he could see that she was nervous. He, of course, was not nervous. He was a Malfoy, and he would show everybody here that he was no disgrace to his name.  
  
With a bored, uninterested mask on his face, he sauntered to the diamond and stepped onto its shiny flat surface. He felt a sudden heat shooting up through his feet, and looked down eagerly at the clear stone to see what part of it would light up.  
  
Suddenly a section of the diamond began to glow in a vibrant magenta. His mind reeling, he didn't know what house that meant he was in until the witch who was standing at the table called out loudly: 'Congratulations! You're in -'  
  
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I believe this marks the ending of my chapter; after all, I want to hear in what house you think Draco is put into. Just guess, you only have five choices. Hmm, this chapter is pretty weird. If you think so too, tell me in a review, cuz then I know if it's past the limit of weirdness or if it can still be tolerated! See you then!  
  
Shooting Jewel  
  
P.S.: Just so that you know, Via Formae means Path of Beauty. Not really original, but then, what can you expect from me?  
  
P.P.S.: And I'll tell you what the Latin house names mean in the next chapter, k?  
  
Thanks to:  
  
My beta-reader *cuty_cat*  
  
My very kind reviewers:  
  
Malfoy Princess - thanks so much, it's nice of you to recommend me as an author *touched*  
  
A13TAT - What you mean, sucky stories? I read the one and absolutely loved it!  
  
Angel of Shadows - well, I posted more, but it kind of sucks  
  
Milkyweed - thanks! *smiles happily*  
  
elen - yup, Draco having feelings is very cool  
  
Jen - glad you do; I hope you'll review again!  
  
Dazma - You study Latin too? Yahoo, I'm not the only one!  
  
Crystal Lily - Well, the lights went out because of the Dark magic attack, as you find out in this chapter  
  
scifisarah - thanks for reviewing twice, I love loyal reviewers!  
  
seekerpeeker - I agree, Draco is to be pitied. But never mind, not for long!  
  
D.S. Moony - don't flatter me! J/k, I love compliments.  
  
Ms. Raye Sinic - Oh, I love getting reviews from you, they're so motivating!  
  
fallen phenoix - hope you get to read these chapters soon. Yeah, Draco is pretty observant when it comes to Ginny.  
  
diana - did you imagine the school like this? Probably not, only someone crazy like me could come up with a school like this!  
  
Draco-lover - thanks, I'm glad you appreciate it!  
  
Mione G - *nice name* hope this met your expectations!  
  
cuty_cat - Number 1: thanks for reviewing, number 2: thanks for editing this chapter so all my dumb mistakes are out of it!  
  
Shooting Jewel (no, I'm NOT a reviewer, this is my signature!) 


	4. Afraid of Himself

Afraid of Himself  
  
OK, I know it has taken me FOREVER to get this chapter out, but I was on holidays, so I have some excuse (I hope). Geez, you people are too smart for me! Every one of you guessed the correct house! Well, here the (un- )mystery is revealed anyway. Sorry, but I didn't manage to put in the translations for the Latin house-names. Maybe I can put them in next time. I'll shut up now, so you can *enjoy* the story!  
  
'...FORTUNA!'  
  
Dazed, and trying to keep his head and his cool, Draco Malfoy blinked, wondering what table he was supposed to attend. Obviously the table at which the students were cheering the most - the one that formed the middle curve in the semi-circle of student tables.  
  
Assuming an expression of cool boredom, he strutted towards this table, but he couldn't help glance back at Ginny. What house will she be in? Will she be alright if she's in a different house from me?  
  
Now what had he gone thinking those thoughts for?! Draco was sure they were inspired only by the pitiful picture the Weasley made. On her face, only a set, determined look was visible. But, despite that, she was still weak, and not feeling herself at all. Anyone could see that at a glance.  
  
The girls at the gold and white decorated table he sat down at were giggling among themselves, and flashing what were their impressions of brilliant smiles at him. Not much different from home, Draco mused. He had precariously chosen a spot in between two guys - you never could be safe with girls. They always had something up their sleeve.  
  
The boy on his right matched the description 'tall, dark, and handsome' pretty well. He just nodded at Draco, but the latter knew he was being studied carefully. The one on his left had abnormally straw-coloured hair and a VERY cheerful disposition- as if Draco hadn't suffered enough. He insisted on chattering through the whole of Ginny's sorting, obviously oblivious to the fact that Draco was having a hard time watching carefully, but not looking as though he was.  
  
'You're from Hogwarts, right? Of course, that school is really famous, but I think our school must be better, 'cause we've got the best Quidditch team, and that's all that really counts, right? Actually, you're in luck, we haven't chosen this year's team yet; maybe you'll be on it! Are you any good at Quidditch?'  
  
But without waiting for Draco's reply, which probably wouldn't have been granted him anyway, he went off again at top speed.  
  
'Of course, even if you are, you'd still have a hard time catching up to the people on our team. They've beaten all the schools in the International Quidditch Wizarding School League, and won the Grand Prize two years' running! Or was it three? I can never-'  
  
Here Draco felt it his duty to interrupt, and he did this with the traditional Malfoy sneer:  
  
'Well, has it ever occurred to your thick skull that maybe that is because Hogwarts has never participated in the School League? Our school's got four individual teams, so that kind of makes it impossible to participate, but correct me if I'm wrong, will you?'  
  
If he hoped this would subdue the over-excited boy, he was sadly disappointed.  
  
'You don't participate? What a pity, you've missed out on a lot of fun! Last year...' He continued in this vein for a while, so Draco decided simply to ignore him and concentrate on Ginny, who had just taken shaky steps onto the center diamond.  
  
Again, the diamond lit up - at the middle, the same as it had done with him! -and Ginny swayed slightly, as if losing her balance. Draco's muscles instinctively tightened up, almost ready to dash out there and catch her if need be, and only the memory of his father's latest drill and horrible punishment kept him from doing so.  
  
Which was good, for Ginny stayed on her feet. But her eyes, wide and mesmerizing, found his and her lips mouthed his name.  
  
Again, he had the devastating feeling that she needed him; had needed him before, and that he had not helped her. He felt, all of a sudden, with terrible clarity, her pain, and her suffering, as if it had been inflicted on him instead of her.  
  
But in the next moment, the shout of: 'Congratulations! You've been put into... FORTUNA!' echoed around the brilliant room, and Ginny shook her head in a confused manner, but, looking doubtful, headed off towards the table Draco was sitting at.  
  
********************  
  
How could this be? Ginny was thinking, her head still pounding from her 'faint attacks'. How is it that Draco - well, Malfoy - and I both got sorted into the same house?! We have nothing in common!  
  
And why had she felt so weak and over-powered when the diamond lit up? Draco - Malfoy, she corrected herself in her mind - hadn't shown any signs of having his conscience knocked out when HE was sorted. But then, she remembered wistfully, he was strong. Unlike her...  
  
'Hey, your name's Virginia, isn't it?' A cool and distant voice interrupted Ginny's demoralized thoughts.  
  
With a start, she turned to the girl she had sat down next to. She had long, absolutely straight black hair, and her dark eyes under even darker, heavily arched eyebrows were fixed on Ginny. Her mouth was set firmly. She was not pretty, but she had a mysterious charm about her.  
  
'Well, yes, my name's Virginia, but everybody calls me Ginny.' With the exception of Draco, who calls me Weasley, she added in her head, then scolded herself silently for thinking of Draco AGAIN. 'What's yours?'  
  
'Sarcer. Natasha Sarcer. You didn't mention your last name,' she pointed out, almost accusingly.  
  
Why would she think so importantly of her last name? Frowning slightly, Ginny told her: 'My full name is Virginia Weasley, but I didn't think it mattered.'  
  
Natasha's eyes narrowed. 'Why are you in Fortuna?' she asked darkly. 'You belong in Liberalitas.'  
  
This surprised Ginny even more. How could Natasha demand of HER why she had been sorted into this house? It didn't make any sense. But before she could think of an answer, another voice intervened.  
  
'Oh, drop it, Natasha. Don't you remember how everybody said I should be in Liberalitas instead, untill what happened last year?'  
  
The girl who had said this grinned at Ginny, showing dimples in her rather round cheeks. She had twinkling blue eyes, and blond curls. She must have been around Ginny's age, but looked younger and more innocent.  
  
Natasha glared at the intruder of their conversation. Finally she said curtly: 'Nobody asked you, Rachel. If Sole comes by, tell her I wasn't hungry.' With these words, she swung up from her chair and crossed the shining golden floor of the Great Hall to a door Ginny hadn't noticed before. She kept her head down, and her eyes lowered, but the faint pink flush on her cheeks showed the resentment she was probably feeling.  
  
'Who is Sole?' Ginny asked the other girl, Rachel, feeling she had to say something to start up the conversation again after Natasha's abrupt exit.  
  
Rachel smiled at Ginny again. 'Short for Professor Sole, our headmistress.' Then, seeing that Ginny's eyes were straying to the teachers' table, she explained: 'She was the one who welcomed you and your friend - what's his name again?'  
  
Ginny felt her heart beat quicken at the mention of Draco, especially the mention of him as her friend. This brightened her eyes and made her speak more sharply than she had intended.  
  
'He's NOT my friend,' she said testily. 'His name is Draco Malfoy, and we were in the opposing houses at our other school.'  
  
The baby-blue eyes opened wide. 'Then why did he catch you when you went all dizzy when you came in?' Rachel asked in astonishment.  
  
A tiny bubble of happiness rose in Ginny at the words - they seemed to signify something; something important. But she cruelly crushed it with a memory of Draco's dry words.  
  
'He didn't catch me, I FELL on him,' she explained. 'I was still feeling faint because of what happened in the Sedes Aeris.'  
  
She could see sparks of excitement lighting up in Rachel's eyes, but before the latter could speak, golden and silver plates, cutlery, goblets, and lighted candles in gold holders appeared on the table. Ginny saw that both she and Rachel - and also Natasha, if she had still been there - had gold plates, while the boys were given silver ones. The sensation reminded her uncannily of Hogwarts, and, for the first time since the accident in the transport, she felt relaxed, and even hungry, remembering her mother's very own recipe for fruit salad, that tasted better on a warm day than anything else.  
  
So it was to her utter amazement that a huge glass (or was it diamond?) bowl could suddenly be seen on the table. Looking around curiously, Ginny noticed that similar bowls were appearing on all the other tables. And inside them she could see - fruit salad!  
  
As she was staring at the dish, remembrance washed over her. Excluding the fact that it was served in a fancy bowl, the salad looked exactly like her mother's. All the fruit pieces were mixed into one colourful brightness. Vanilla yoghurt topped it off.  
  
Rachel smiled more at the bowl than at Ginny, and heaped her plate full of the contents. Ginny's head swam as she watched her incredulously.  
  
For on the golden plate, what had looked like fruit salad to Ginny, now appeared to be an Italian dish - boconccini cheese, tomatoes and basil in neat slices.  
  
Gingerly, she also lifted the great, elaborate spoon in the glass bowl, and scooped some of what still looked exactly like fruit salad to her onto her plate. It didn't suddenly change into something else, as she had feared.  
  
'You like fruit salad? Me too,' Rachel told her, already demolishing great quantities of the food on her plate. 'But it still can't beat THIS.' She gestured at her plate.  
  
Now totally confused, Ginny noted that the boy sitting next to the empty seat which had been taken by Natasha Sarcer, was eating a sort of pasta salad.  
  
Hoping to sound matter-of-fact, she questioned Rachel: 'What's with the food?'  
  
Swallowing an enormous mouthful, her new-found friend explained thickly: 'It's bewitched to look, taste, and smell like the meal you imagined. So, it's something different to every person, of course.'  
  
Was life ever complicated here! Shaking her head, Ginny dug into her salad, which indeed tasted as delicious as her mother's.  
  
After everyone had finished dessert (which followed the same principle the meal did), Rachel turned to Ginny eagerly.  
  
'Wanna come upstairs to the girl's common room? Then you can tell us all about your awesome accident coming here!'  
  
Just the thought of retelling that experience made her head throb again, but she agreed amiably, as she did not want to offend Rachel, who had been so nice to her.  
  
They left the Great Hall with a lot of other students, and Ginny caught herself looking out for Draco, but she didn't see him anywhere. Past the door, she found she was in a huge, steely silver room, which was filled with golden couches and armchairs, lying about in any position. She stopped short, unsure what to do, but saw that many students were already filing past her and walking about among the furniture, apparently looking for something.  
  
Just as she was about to ask Rachel what they were going to do here, her eye fell on two girls, a little older than her, choosing a huge armchair and settling down in it. As soon as they had, the golden chair disappeared from view.  
  
'Come on, Virginia - or is Ginny alright?' Rachel was pulling her towards an enormous couch, on which a couple of students were already sitting. It was then that Ginny noticed little signs on the backs of the furniture, labelled with things like '5th Year Girls' Bathroom', 'Staffroom', or even 'Qudditch Field'.  
  
The lable on the back of the couch they were approaching read '3rd Year Girls' Common Room'. Rachel dropped onto it and Ginny followed her example.  
  
After another couple of girls had joined them, the couch was full, and suddenly she found herself whizzing into nothingness.  
  
******************************  
  
Draco Malfoy was annoyed. He found the food idiotic (though it probably had something to do with the fact that he had made a fool out of himself in order to discover its specialty), and that stupid guy next to him had been yapping on all through lunch, making it even more disagreeable. Plus, there seemed to be nobody here who would respect Lucius Malfoy's son. WHY had his father sent him here?  
  
Actually, the fact that irritated him most, though he would never have admitted it, not even to himself, was that he had the consistant urge to look out for the Weasley girl. And he still hadn't figured out how it was possible that they had both been sorted into the same house - two enemies!  
  
Now, following the mass of students all in white or black robes into the room full of golden couches and chairs, he felt more annoyed than ever. That little Ginny was nowhere in sight! Probably she had already blundered into some kind of chair and been sent off to the Headmistress' Bedroom, or something equally stupid. Or maybe she had fainted in the middle of the room, and this mob was stumbling over her!  
  
He was yanked out of his brooding thoughts by a very unwelcome voice.  
  
'Mr Malfoy!' Professor Kelsey was positively beaming at him. He groaned inwardly and wondered when this day's tortures would finally end.  
  
'I heard the young girl - Miss Weasley - was injured, but you seem to be alright. Now, where is your charming little friend?'  
  
This, to Draco, was adding insult to injury. 'First thing,' he instructed her in the silky voice he assumed when absolutely furious, 'Ginny Weasley is most definitely not my friend. Second thing,' he went on, seeing the surprised look that came over the professor's dumb face, 'I have no notion where she could be.'  
  
'Oh, I wouldn't worry about her if I were you. Wherever she is, she's sure to run into a teacher sooner or later, who will give her the neccessary information. Now, I have your robes for you-'. Here she produced a neatly folded pile of black fabric, which she handed Draco. 'And you had best go to the 4th Year Boys' Dormitory, where you will find your trunk next to the bed provided for you.' She smiled sweetly at him.  
  
'And how, may I ask, am I to find the 4th Year Boys' Dormitory?' Draco asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. He was hoping she would unveil the mystery of the golden furniture.  
  
After a full explanation from Professor Kelsey, Draco was about to hasten off, when she suddenly pulled a piece of parchment out of her robes.  
  
'Don't forget your timetable!' she cried cheerfully, waving it in his face in a most irritating way. Mumbling a thank you, Draco grabbed it from her, and quickly found a chair going to his destination. As he settled himself down in it, he sighed deeply. This was going to be a nightmare.  
  
**********************************  
  
Ginny gazed around the common room in total delight. Elegant crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and the floor was tiled in pearly white and gold. Long mirrors, richly enhanced with gold frames hung from the marble walls. And silk cushions of every colour were strewn across the floor. A group of girls were already perched on some of them.  
  
In one corner, Ginny could see Natasha Sarcer sitting on a black velvet pillow, frowning over a huge book. If it hadn't been for her grim expression, she would have looked very much like Hermione.  
  
Rachel immediately made introductions all round, and as Ginny sat down on a pile of cushions (which were surprisingly soft and cool), she would have felt absolutely free and contented, were it not for the nagging thought in the back of her mind which was Draco.  
  
The girls, all in pretty white robes lined with silver ribbon, began talking about their favourite Qudditch players, but suddenly one of the girls - Ginny remembered her name was Amy Verdan - fixed her eyes on Ginny and demanded: 'You've got to tell us all about the Dark attack on the Sedes Aeris. It must have been so exciting!'  
  
Ginny shrugged her shoulders disdainfully, trying not to show what a frightened state the 'exciting' experience had left her in. She told them in brief, unenthusiastic words what had happened on her journey to the new school.  
  
'Oh, wow,' breathed a girl who had been introduced to her as Vanessa. 'Didn't you bleed all over the floor?'  
  
'No, not really,' Ginny answered without thinking. 'Draco used his sweater to - I mean, the wound didn't really bleed much. Besides, those witches and wizards from here soon arrived and stopped it.' She pulled back a lock of hair to show them the faint scar on her temple. Inside, she was praying that the girls hadn't payed any attention to what she had started to say. That would lead to questions about Draco, and she didn't think she could answer those and keep an emotionless face. He would be able to do it with no problem, she thought bitterly. Draco Malfoy was an expert at never showing any emotions. Not that he had any but loathing about her anyway.  
  
For a minute, everybody just exclaimed over her healed wound, and it seemed nobody was thinking about her first answer.  
  
But then Amy, a sly look on her face, suddenly asked: 'Draco? What did he do with his sweater?'  
  
Feeling all eyes on her, Ginny answered steadily, although she couldn't prevent a crimson flush from staining her cream complexion. 'I don't really know. I was unconcious, remember? I just saw that his sweater had blood on it. He probably wiped some of the blood off the floor.' She had, of course, neglected to tell them that she had landed right in his arms.  
  
'Well, he seems to be really courteous. Or is he only like that to you?' Amy asked innocently.  
  
Ginny felt as if she was standing on the edge of a cliff. One false move, and everything would be over.  
  
'What do you mean? Draco's not courteous, least of all to me,' she said suspiciously.  
  
Amy exchanged significant glances with some other girls. 'Then why did he rush to catch you when you fainted as you came into Great Hall?'  
  
'He didn't!' protested Ginny hotly. 'I fell on him, he said so himself...'  
  
But she was cut off by Amy immediatly. 'I'm telling you, Ginny, he saw you start to sway, ran forward, and caught you before anyone else knew something had happened. Believe me,' she added persistently, as Ginny was still shaking her head, 'I SAW.'  
  
At this, Racel began laughing. 'You'd better watch out, Ginny. Amy is our famous match-maker. She'll have you two paired up before Christmas!'  
  
Amy grinned, making a mock bow. 'I will definitely consider it,' she promised.  
  
'No, you've got it all wrong; we're really enemies...' Ginny tried to defend herself, but she was drowned out by the loud cheering of the girls.  
  
Maybe if she had tried harder, she would have been able to persuade them to stop. But a warm little voice in her head spoke temptingly and convincingly of the time Draco had comforted her, of the fated bloody sweater, of the fact that he HAD really caught her when she had fainted, and - that they had both been put into Fortuna. And the voice was so strong she ignored all other instincts and let the girls chatter on without interrupting them.  
  
***************************************  
  
Looking around himself with mild interest, Draco got out of the chair, still holding his new robes and timetable.  
  
The beds were pretty neat, actually, suspended in mid-air close to the domed ceiling. Huge, long windows of the thinnest crystal let in the warm afternoon sun. A gold and black carpet covered the floor, and the walls were a brilliant golden that sparkled in the sunlight.  
  
There was no one in the room except him. The rest of the guys were probably still in the common room. Draco glanced at the beds, and recognized his elegant silver trunk under one of them, which was obviously meant for him.  
  
After he had dumped his robes - black with silver linings - in his trunk, along with his timetable, he sauntered over to the window and gazed out, hoping to be able to see the Quidditch field. He was feeling as if he had just stepped into a world of Muggles, and the familiar sight of a Quidditch field might lift his spirits.  
  
Instead of that, he saw a THING in the sky, which was always soaring up, and then plummeting down again like a stone, but moving steadily towards the castle.  
  
'What in the world-' he stopped short as he noticed it was an owl - an eagle owl, at that, but either badly wounded or dead drunk.  
  
With a sinking feeling of premonition in the pit of his stomach, Draco opened the window. After a second, the owl had reached it in a last, pathetic burst of speed. He instinctively reached out his hand, and the animal collapsed in it, drawing in breath with a horrible, rasping sound.  
  
'Hey, Scipio, what happened to you?' Draco spoke softly to his eagle owl, which he had named after a great Roman war lord. His pet was covered in dried and crusted-up blood, and his coat had been savagely torn.  
  
That was when he noticed the dirt-streaked envelope the owl carried, with the Malfoy seal still barely visible on it. Cursing inside, Draco carried his owl over to his trunk, sat down beside it on the soft carpet, and broke the seal of the letter.  
  
He unfolded it and read the curved, black handwriting at a glance.  
  
Ubi transportum petimus, puellam neca. Pater tuus.  
  
When he had translated the Latin text, Draco's hands began to shake. The emotion that he had always concealed now showed plainly on his face. He was afraid. Scared to death. He was not afraid of his father's curses or punishments, not even of Voldemort, whom everybody feared, not of anything in the world but one thing.  
  
Himself.  
  
  
  
I have to stop here, as nothing even remotely exciting has happened throughout the entire chapter, until now. Sooo.... this means a big cliffie! Next chapter will come out a.s.a.p., which will hopefully be within the next ten years. *j/k* I really hope there will be these nice little things called reviews...  
  
Oh, and Natasha's last name, Sarcer, comes from the Latin carcer, which means prison. The Headmistress' last name, Sole, comes from the Latin sol, which means sun. Have I explained everything? If not, please email me, and I'll be sure to inform you if I missed something here. OK? S.J.  
  
Loads of thanks to:  
  
Amy- here's another cliffhanger for you; hope you don't mind!  
  
diana- now you found out! Are you satisfied with the choice of house they're in?  
  
Lady Malfoy- yup, I did leave you hanging! sorry about that. Romance will come in as soon as I can make it.  
  
Shawnna- I know the feeling, and yes, it was mean of me to stop there!  
  
Sue- you're right! Congrats!  
  
Mage of Fire- thanks so much!  
  
Milkyweed- the D/G stuff was pretty non-existant, but glad you liked it!  
  
elen- I agree. This one's even weirder, so beware!  
  
Jen- Well, mainly so you'd come back to find out, of course. *j/k*  
  
In Your Face- nice name! Well... find out! Your first question hit it right on the beat!  
  
scifisarah- thanks, once again!  
  
and last, but definitely not least, beta-reader.... *drumroll* cuty-cat! Sorry I took forever to finish this one!  
  
Shooting Jewel 


	5. Truth's Coldness

Truth's Coldness  
  
Finally, the house names will be revealed in context with the story, and also the mystery of the last chapter. This chapter includes the start of the first day at the new school *cheers loudly*. After all, it is my creation, and it's lots of fun to make up!  
  
As soon as we attack the transport, kill the girl. Your father.  
  
  
  
No matter how hard he tried, Draco could not banish the words from his head. They tortured him continually, jeering him cruelly. It was worse than being called a coward to his face.  
  
It was night now, and Draco was trying desperately to fall asleep. With sleep, relief might come. But fate would not let him come off so easily.  
  
Groaning, Draco turned over in his bed, which was still hovering close to the ceiling. The boys he shared the dormitory with were all fast asleep.  
  
He sighed, going over everything in his head. After he had translated the brief note, the very first emotion he had felt was confusion. Attack the transport? Kill the girl? What on earth did it all mean?  
  
But in the next second, realization had dawned on him. This letter was supposed to have been delivered to him- well, probably at Platform 9¾, or at least while he was getting into the Sedes Aeris. But for some mysterious reason, his eagle owl had not managed to reach him till a few hours ago.  
  
Obviously, the shaking and the lights going out had meant the attack of the Death Eaters. And at that moment, they had wanted him to kill Ginny.  
  
The very next feeling he had experienced had been, of all things, an immense relief. He had been relieved that the note had come too late, because THAT meant he had the perfect excuse for not having killed her.  
  
He could imagine the situation perfectly, as if he was watching through the eyes of another person. The Sedes Aeris was shaking like mad, and the lights had gone out. The girl with the fiery red hair was screaming in a panicked way, but the tall blond boy was prepared. He yanked his wand out of his pocket and pointed it in the direction the screams were coming from. His grey eyes were clouded over, as if he didn't know what he was doing, and his mouth opened to say the fateful curse. But it did not come.  
  
One could just see that a numbness had been residing over the boy, but suddenly a part of him -and Draco knew EXACTLY which part- thawed out, and was yelling desperately for him to spare the girl. The boy started trembling, his face contorted itself with the inner conflict he was fighting, and then his shaking hand dropped the wand. The warm part he had not known existed in him had won the battle. He knew it was hopeless. He could not kill her.  
  
Draco stared into the dark. How could he go so much against everything he had been brought up to? As far as he could remember, the first lesson his father had taught him had been not to commit himself to emotions. And now he knew with deadly accuracy that the emotions he had committed himself to were so strong that he couldn't even obey one of his father's orders.  
  
At first he had tried to reassure himself. After all, he had never killed anyone before, and it was natural to be a bit hesitant when it came to the first time. Besides, what possible good would killing Ginny do his father, or Voldemort? He had told himself that he was just flinching from it because he didn't even know the facts.  
  
But now, lying awake at night, he knew he couldn't hide behind that lame excuse. So there were only two possible explanations for his passionate relief- and both of them were against the entire Malfoy tradition.  
  
The first theory was that he was a coward. Draco was almost sick at that thought. He couldn't bear to see himself as a weak little fool who crept away as soon as he got some real responsibility- and was over the moon when it was taken from him in a way so he could not be blamed.  
  
But the nausea that came with admitting he was a coward was nothing to the icy fear which gripped him when he thought of the only other explanation there was.  
  
The second theory was that he cared enough for Ginny Weasley to do anything to prevent her death.  
  
********************  
  
There was a haze all around Ginny. But then, the haze floated off, leaving behind only darkness. She was leaning against somebody, and her head throbbed repeatedly.  
  
The someone who was holding her suddenly held something warm and soft against her head, where she could feel the sticky moisture of blood trickling down.  
  
Without thinking, she whispered the first thing that came into her head: 'Harry?'  
  
The second after she had, she knew that couldn't be right. Even though having Harry Potter around had always made her feel protected, this sensation of tenderness was new.  
  
'No', a voice replied curtly. She could hear annoyance in it, and recognized it before the person spoke again. 'It's Draco.'  
  
Ginny smiled, feeling safe and cared for. It was Draco, who would never do anything to hurt her. She should have guessed.  
  
Draco's fingers brushed her lips in a caressing way. It made her glow inside with the fire of a dragon. Well, that's what his name was, actually.  
  
'Draco. Means dragon in Latin, doesn't it?' she mused, more to herself than anyone. His touch continued to send fire through her, and she relaxed, enjoying it.  
  
'Yeah, it does.' Draco answered. 'My dad named me that because he wanted something that sounded imposing, and meant something like that in Latin, too.' His voice grew hard. 'Pity I never lived up to his expectations of me.'  
  
A wave of compassion went through Ginny, and she tried to make Draco feel it too. The reason he didn't fulfil Lucius' expectations was because he wasn't a real Malfoy. he was so much more than that.  
  
Suddenly, his fingers left her lips, which turned cold immediately. It was as though she could feel that Draco was mentally distancing himself from her, and in his place would come pain and insecurity. She tried to reach out to him, to touch his face, but it was too much effort in her weakened state.  
  
'Don't leave me, Draco', Ginny groaned piteously. She needed him. How could she make him stay?  
  
'Draco, you're-' she stopped, not finding the words to finish her sentence. A bit of warmth seeped into her as she felt Draco leaning over her, his eagerness apparent.  
  
'Yes?'  
  
But at that moment, there was a loud commotion, Draco got up quickly, and suddenly there were a lot of people in the room. One of them was at her side, and put a flask to her lips.  
  
Then grey fog enveloped her again, and suddenly she knew that she was leaving Draco, but she could do nothing to stop it happening.  
  
Ginny's eyes snapped open, and she lay in her bed, breathing heavily, and staring unseeingly into the darkness of her dormitory.  
  
***********************  
  
It was no use. He was definitely not going to get any sleep tonight, Draco thought wearily. Which meant he was going to be stupid and clumsy the next day- his first day at the new school.  
  
He sat up and strained to make out the dark shapes that were the other beds in the dormitory. Maybe one of his room mates was still awake? After all, any company right now would be better than being forced to think about the day's horrible events.  
  
When he caught sight of something glowing bright red in the direction of his trunk, he changed his mind. Not exactly ANY company.  
  
Still, he couldn't ignore the persistent glow, so he reluctantly picked up his wand from the side of the hovering bed, and gently floated down. He could just make out his open trunk in the night's darkness.  
  
Snatching up the portable Apparating Receiver his father had entrusted him with, a very powerful and illegal Dark artefact, Draco quickly sat down in one of the armchairs that the students used to move from room to room. In a second, the dormitory vanished in front of his eyes, and was replaced by a long, dimly lit room which Draco recognized as the one adjoining the Arx Aurea's Great Hall, which was, as before, littered with couches and chairs of all sizes.  
  
Draco surveyed it critically. He wasn't sure if this was a safe place to receive his father- or even Voldemort, you could never know which one it was- but getting to another room might take too long. Most likely whoever wanted to see him was livid with impatience already.  
  
After using a quick Sealing Charm, that would not hold long against a wizard, but would at least ensure that he could leave before anybody came in, he set the thin black disc from which the red light was coming on the tiled floor, and then switched the resistance off by muttering a counter spell.  
  
Immediately, the forbidding figure of Lucius Malfoy appeared on the disc. His hard eyes took in the whole room at a glance; the suggestion of a sneer hung about his lips. Then he turned to his son.  
  
'Well, Draco? Is it true your eagle owl was delayed, and you received the message too late?' he questioned in the tone of one baiting for information.  
  
While his father had been looking around, Draco had used the opportunity to harden his face into a stone mask, so that NOTHING could betray him. Now he answered with characteristic Malfoy ease.  
  
'Well, obviously. The Weasley is still alive, isn't she? Scipio came to me looking like a real wreck, sometime after we had arrived here. He must have gotten into some trouble,' he said carelessly.  
  
Lucius snarled. 'I had hoped it was just a rumour,' he muttered to himself. 'My own son, unable to carry out a simple command.'  
  
Draco, who had crossed his arms in front of him, drove his nails deeply into the folds of the cloak he had thrown over himself before leaving the room. That was exactly what he had thought of himself at first. But his father wasn't supposed to know that.  
  
'Your incapable son,' he coolly interrupted Lucius' conversation with himself, 'unfortunately had no idea he was supposed to commit a murder for you. Ability had nothing to do with it.'  
  
Then, as his father just stared coldly at him, Draco asked as harmlessly as he could: 'Why kill her, anyway?'  
  
Watching closely out of the corner of his eye, while appearing very busy in rearranging his cloak around his shoulders, he saw Lucius' eyes flash dangerously.  
  
'Because now someone knows you, and your reputation,' he informed him harshly. When Draco glanced quizzically at him, he slapped him across the face.  
  
'Wake up, boy! Your Malfoy name instantly connects you to Lord Voldemort and the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. But here-' he waved a hand at the otherwise deserted room, 'nobody has ever heard the name Malfoy. They have no idea of your, and especially my position in things. So if you get any letters, or other things sent to you, nobody will be suspicious.' His face hardened. 'Nobody, except- little Ginny Weasley.'  
  
Now Draco understood. Ginny might tell all the rumours that had been told about him to her new friends at the Arx Aurea, and since this was a 'strictly no Dark Arts' school, everybody would be watchful of him, and get suspicious when anything in the least out of the ordinary happened. But as just a new kid from the famous Hogwarts, nobody would see him as a threat. They seemed to be very lax about security here.  
  
So Ginny had to be killed. But he could not kill her. The detest he felt for the part of him that refused to let him do it was so overwhelming he was afraid his father might notice. But Lucius Malfoy was brooding, his eyes fixed on a specific point in the distance.  
  
Draco glanced at him impatiently, yearning for him to leave. His stone mask was cracking, and he wasn't sure how long it would still hold. He had never kept any big secret from his father before, and he wasn't used to hiding anything from his innate gaze.  
  
'She must be destroyed. or threatened into not speaking,' Lucius Malfoy was talking to himself. 'But you can't kill any human in this school, most unfortunately. It would have been so convenient to do it in the transport.' he trailed off.  
  
'Draco!' He snapped, turning on his son. 'Find out if you ever get to leave the grounds of this school. And until you do, try threatening the Weasley girl so she won't tell anyone of your reputation.'  
  
Hopelessness struck him, and rendered him immobile for a second. How on earth was he supposed to keep out of Ginny's way, when he had this new instruction to threaten her? He was sure Lucius would be able to see his despair, so he quickly bent his head in a subservient way and answered steadily, his eyes staring holes into the floor: 'Yes, father.'  
  
As soon as he sensed his father had left, Draco flung himself onto the cold floor, breathing raggedly and trying to control the twisting pain inside him. No matter how he tried to cover up the fact, sooner or later he would have to kill Ginny. And he knew he couldn't.  
  
**********************  
  
  
  
The dream haunted Ginny through the rest of her sleepless night. She knew she was supposed to rest as much as possible before the big day tomorrow, but the vivid pictures that kept imprinting themselves on her mind wouldn't let her.  
  
Over and over again, she felt Draco's fingers on her lips, the warmth of his body beside her, and the protecting ring that she had felt enclosing them both.  
  
HOW? Ginny involuntarily touched the thin scar on her temple. Why had she not been alarmed to find herself in her enemy's arms? And how could it be merely a dream, when she had gone through the situation just a few hours before?  
  
That was what haunted her most. She had never dreamed like this before. She remembered what had happened just before the dream, and just after it. It fit right in the time when she had been unconscious.  
  
A shiver stole across her back. Had she really said those things? Had everything in the dream truly happened, when she had been not consciously there? Including- she felt her lips burn at the thought -including Draco's touch? And his reassurances?  
  
While she was still trying to calm herself, a new, even more frightening question had struck her, with such force she felt dizzy for a moment.  
  
How would she have finished the sentence she had started?  
  
*******************************  
  
Finally the morning sunlight bounded joyously into the dormitory through the huge windows. Draco was relieved to see it, but he still felt too drained and exhausted to get up. He had been dead tired for the last few hours before dawn, but sleep had still been out of the question, much as he had prayed for it.  
  
He was even more relieved when another of the guys he was sharing the room with started to stir. Finally something to get his mind off everything that had happened.  
  
The boy who sat up, looking tousled and sleepy, was the one Draco had sat next to in Great Hall. Not the little one with the straw-blond hair, he was pleased to see, but the tall dark-haired one.  
  
He rubbed his eyes and caught sight of Draco, fully dressed, who was sitting on the bed opposite his. Draco raised one eyebrow in greeting.  
  
'Hey,' the boy said warily. His dark eyes wandered over Draco in mild surprise. 'You in a hurry or something?'  
  
Draco shrugged. This person didn't need to know that he had done everything he could think of to distract himself. 'What's your name?' he asked instead.  
  
'Jason Asper,' the boy introduced himself. He threw his room mate a glance that could have been admiring. 'It's nothing as cool a name as yours,' he added.  
  
Draco raised his eyebrow again. 'Do you even know Latin?'  
  
Jason laughed rather bitterly. 'I may almost flunk every Latin exam we get, but I do know that draco is dragon.'  
  
Now Draco was interested. 'You get Latin as a regular subject?' he asked, amazed. Maybe this school wasn't quite so bad after all.  
  
Jason nodded glumly. All the time this conversation had been going on, he had been getting down from his bed in the air, and dressing in his school robes, which were identical to Draco's.  
  
Draco, with the help of his wand, also floated down onto the carpeted floor. Jason seemed to be an OK guy. At least he didn't talk too much.  
  
At that moment, a groan was heard, and another head popped up over the edge of the bed.  
  
'Hi!' It said cheerfully. 'It' was a sleepy-eyed boy with a shock of red hair that reminded Draco uncannily of Ron Weasley's, except that it was lighter. He jumped out of bed and landed with surprising ease, considering the height.  
  
'You're Draco Malfoy from Hogwarts, aren't you?' he asked nonchalantly.  
  
Draco nodded briefly, already turning back to Jason. 'When do they serve breakfast here?' he asked, since he was ravenous.  
  
'Right now,' Jason grinned. 'Come on, let's go.'  
  
***********************  
  
Ginny, who was admiring herself in the school robes in one of the dormitory's full-length mirror, caught a black look from Natasha Sarcer, who was just about to leave for breakfast.  
  
'Hey, Rachel,' she called out, suddenly remembering something. 'Why did Natasha say I was supposed to be in Liberalitas, instead of Fortuna?'  
  
Rachel, who was in the middle of a pillow fight with Vanessa, answered breathlessly: 'You shouldn't take anything Natasha says too seriously, she's just- Vanessa Leat! That was my stomach!'  
  
Shaking her head, Ginny turned back to the mirror. Sometimes Rachel could be childish.  
  
The girl who had introduced herself as Tiffany the night before joined her. She looked older than the other girls.  
  
'Hi, Ginny. I heard you haven't ever had any Latin classes?' It was a question, not a statement.  
  
'Well, we didn't have any Latin at Hogwarts, and I never learnt any at home,' Ginny told her, feeling worried. She didn't like the idea of working like crazy at a subject everybody else could do.  
  
Tiffany smiled reassuringly. 'Don't worry about it. But I thought as much. You don't know what Liberalitas means in English, do you?'  
  
And as Ginny shook her head, she added: 'OK, then I'll explain all the Latin house names for you. But first, we'd better go down and get breakfast.'  
  
Ginny learned the names on their journey on a big golden armchair from the dormitory to the Intersection, as Tiffany called the room next to Great Hall.  
  
'Now, first of all, there's Liberalitas. Everybody always starts with that one; probably because it's the top left section of the diamond. Liberalitas simply means kindness. Next is Forma, which is the Latin for beauty or figure. It's the top right part. Beneath it is Disciplina- that's lesson, or discipline, of course. And the bottom left is Fortitudo. Translated, it's strength or bravery. Last of all is Fortuna,' Tiffany said dramatically, while they were entering Great Hall.  
  
'And what does Fortuna mean?' Ginny asked curiously. She wondered what would fit to both her and Draco Malfoy.  
  
The other girl looked mysterious. She led Ginny over to the Fortuna table and sat down at one end of it.  
  
'That one's kind of a mystery. Normally, when you look it up in a dictionary or ask a teacher, they say the definition is fate or fortune. But somehow, everybody always refers to the Fortuna students as 'the chosen ones'. I think that's its real meaning- 'chosen'. But anyhow,' she added in a more cheerful tone, 'every house also has its own colour, which is shown in the lining of the school robes.'  
  
'So Fortuna's colour is silver,' Ginny prompted. 'What about the others?'  
  
'Oh, Liberalitas is yellow, Forma is red, Disciplina is purple -most of the guys are so embarrassed about that- and Fortitudo is blue. Breakfast!' she exclaimed, gazing delightedly at the huge platter of what to Ginny was unmistakably pancakes with butter and syrup.  
  
While they were busy eating, Rachel came to their table. At first, Ginny didn't even notice, for close behind her was a dark-haired, serious- looking guy and- Draco.  
  
Just the sight of him made her painfully aware of how cold her lips were, and for a second she yearned to have the dream she had dismissed as a nightmare back. But only for a second. After that, the ugly feeling of disloyalty to her family and tradition churned in her stomach, and she dropped her gaze quickly.  
  
'Ginny! Hey, Ginny?' Rachel had to shake her shoulder to get her attention.  
  
Ginny breathed in quickly, hoping nobody had seen her looking at Draco. THAT would have been too hard to explain.  
  
'Sorry, Rachel, what is it?' she asked, feeling that the flush that had been born of the unlawful dream and her anger was very apparent.  
  
'Your timetable.' Rachel tossed back her blond curls and handed her the scrap of parchment.  
  
'Oh! Thanks,' Ginny said, eagerly picking it up. She couldn't wait to see her subjects.  
  
'Today's Tuesday, so we get. Flying first!' she exclaimed, examining the timetable carefully.  
  
'Yeah. we'll probably be auditioning for the Quidditch team.' Rachel remarked, sighing obviously. 'I always hope I'll get in, but that would be like a miracle. You any good at it?'  
  
Ginny shook her head. Although all her brothers were ultimate Quidditch fans, and she really enjoyed flying, she couldn't say she possessed any particular talent for it.  
  
Tiffany snorted. 'Well, you have to be really pretty top at it if you want to be picked for the team. They go in for international competitions, so they can't afford to have any player who isn't one of the best.'  
  
Suddenly Amy, who had been talking to another girl, leaned across the table and grinned mischievously at Ginny.  
  
'How about Draco Malfoy?' Her voice rang clearly across the table, and even at the other end, heads turned. But Amy's eyes were innocent as a lamb's.  
  
Ginny could feel the blood rushing in her head. She was positive that a certain, good-looking guy with silver-blond hair and an annoying smirk had heard her, and was waiting, probably amused, for her answer. But what could she say?  
  
'Well, he was on his house team at Hogwarts,' she said carefully, not wanting to say anything that could be used against her.  
  
'But how good is he? Tell me,' Amy demanded, twisting her lips into a smile.  
  
Infuriated by this, Ginny answered without thinking: 'Not as good as Harry Potter, you can count on that.'  
  
The second the angry words had left her lips she regretted them. Draco would be furious, because if one thing mattered to him, then it was his pride. And what she had said would cut his pride deeply.  
  
Not wanting to look into Amy's satisfied face, she turned her head away quickly to one side, gazing unblinkingly down the length of the table.  
  
One pair of eyes connected with hers. And when Ginny saw the dark loathing in them, she felt sick with shame. Her head swam, tears began to glaze up her wide brown eyes, and her body felt on fire. The only thing she could see was what had happened in her dream, over and over again.  
  
Then, blackness crashed over her pounding head and she let herself slip to the floor, losing more of her consciousness all the time. This time, she welcomed it, for it allowed her to escape truth's coldness, even if it was just for a short while.  
  
But it could not last, and she knew that.  
  
  
  
************************  
  
Definitely a weird place to stop. I know, all of you are going to complain about the fact that Ginny's always fainting. It's to do with something in the story that will be shown fully way later. probably at the end. So, don't think she's totally weak or anything, it's just something else happening to her. And I know Draco's being pretty emotional in here. but the problem is that he's never had emotions like this, so he doesn't know how to deal with them. Sorry if he's too soft. (S.J.: Draco! Toughen up! You're making me look bad!) Also, about the Latin words: the definitions may vary from book to book. This is the way they're in my Latin book, so that's how I'm putting them down. And Fortuna doesn't really mean chosen, but it's important for the story.  
  
Positive (or even negative) criticism would be very much appreciated. Thanks to all these who have given their opinion:  
  
Shiann- Oh, glad you like my school. You wouldn't believe how much fun it is to make up!  
  
Sneef22- well, this came out so late, you probably don't know it exists anymore  
  
Cloudzi- yea, I'm really sorry about that. I've put in the house names, but update faster and make the chapters longer is pretty much impossible in my situation. thanx for reviewing!  
  
Gin the Gemini- yup, Draco's too soft for my taste, too, I like him really tough. Hm, that's an interesting question. No, I don't think guys usually talk about that kind of stuff. God, I don't know what the food REALLY is. Some health food, probably. *g*  
  
Mage of Fire- Honestly? *looks around, scared* Oooops, I hadn't noticed. I can see what you mean though. I'll try to put some ugly people in, k?  
  
AmethystClown- Well, I just take everything crazy I ever thought of and mix it all up, and the result is the Arx Aurea. Thanks for the compliments, btw!  
  
elen- I love Draco too. I mean, who doesn't?  
  
Nikki- *gulp* please forgive me for not updating quickly. I had no idea somebody actually would consider putting me on their fave list. I'm really honoured!  
  
A13TAT- this wasn't a cliffie, right? And don't say you suck, cuz you know it's not true. Nobody really does. (except me, maybe)  
  
The Dark Lady Adrienne- yeah, you're lucky there! If I need help, I'll definitely call on you! And thanx for the compliments.  
  
jenn- YES! I explained! Right?  
  
Arafel- I wouldn't call this soon. but thanks for reviewing twice!  
  
Rachel- You like my cliffhanger? Wow, that's something new! Nearly everybody is ready to kill me for it. And, yup, sooner or later it will come out why they're both in the same house.  
  
depth- no fair! Don't be so nice to me, I'll get conceited!  
  
Now, I wonder what cuty-cat's opinion is. Hm, maybe I don't want to know. Anyway, thanks for reading this and pointing out mistakes, stupid things, etc. I O U!  
  
Shooting Jewel 


	6. School

School  
  
Don't mind if Draco seems evil in here, but he's been too soft lately. Otherwise, I have nothing else to tell you, so here goes:  
  
*****************************  
  
This time, even as he was watching Ginny slide to the floor, Draco turned away and went on eating as if nothing had happened.  
  
If only it hadn't been too late, he could have killed her at this moment. How could she have done that?  
  
Of course, he was used to being snubbed and compared to Harry Potter- but that was from people who he loathed. Their opinion didn't matter to him.  
  
This was different. He couldn't explain it, but he had, in a way, trusted Ginny. Ever since she had been wounded on the transport, he hadn't insulted her, and the other way around. It was as if there was a mutual agreement between them that they would treat each other at a respectful distance. And that wasn't the only thing that made him smart more than he had ever before.  
  
All the things he had done for her. Held her when she was bleeding and unconscious, reassured her before that, and caught her when she had threatened to fall again. He had done all that, made a fool out of himself, because he had been hoping to be rewarded with a smile on her face and gratefulness in her eyes. He had actually believed that it might happen!  
  
And then, as gratitude, she had compared him in an insulting way to the person he hated most of all- Harry Potter, humiliating him in public! She had betrayed him.  
  
Father was right, Draco thought bitterly. One might think him cruel, but he was just living the only way it was possible to live in this world. As long as you only cared about pleasing and saving yourself, nothing would happen to you.  
  
That was a lesson which he had heard since childhood. And now he had gone against it, he had had feelings for Ginny. He was too scared of what he might discover to explore these feelings, but he knew they existed. And he had been mortified and pained beyond anything he had ever known.  
  
All these years I've thought Father was nothing but a power-hungry idiot, he thought miserably, but in reality, he's clever. I was never harmed by anybody but him while I was under his care, but the second I stepped out of it and stopped following his principles, I got hurt and betrayed.  
  
Malicious plans of revenge formed in his mind as he went on eating. He was going to display all his traditional Malfoy evilness and cunning to get back at her. And maybe then he could forget that he had ever felt anything for Ginny Weasley.  
  
At least, that's what he hoped.  
  
*******************************  
  
Ginny regained consciousness, spluttering on the potion the Latin Professor had given her. She still felt dizzy and weak, and stars kept bursting into a shower of darkness in front of her eyes, but she was determined that nothing should keep her from her first school day at Arx Aurea.  
  
'I'm OK,' she kept reassuring everybody who made anxious enquiries about her.  
  
Finally, she was given permission to go to her first class with the other 3rd Years (A/N: they have flying first, remember?). Rachel and Tiffany joined Ginny on a small golden sofa labelled 'Practice Quidditch Field'.  
  
In one rush they had left the Intersection behind and were blinking in the morning sunlight.  
  
Ginny looked around in excitement, her strength returning to her in the form of anticipation and curiosity. The Quidditch field itself looked much like the one at Hogwarts, except that it was smaller, serving only for practice, with three gold hoops on either end and permanent markings of the same colour in the grass. But what amazed her was what lay beyond the Quidditch field: she could see a rose garden shimmering in different colours to her right, and to her left, there was a soft slope leading down to an immense, dazzlingly blue swimming pool.  
  
While she was gazing around, more students were arriving. Some of them wore robes lined with silver, like hers, but others were edged with brilliant purple.  
  
Beside her, Rachel sighed. 'Oh no, we have flying with the Disciplina students.'  
  
'What's wrong with them?' asked Ginny, eyeing the newcomers inquisitively.  
  
'Well, nothing really,' Rachel explained, 'it's just that they're always really good at everything, mostly because they're always practising and studying. And that's kind of dumb in a subject like flying, where you want to have fun instead of always being in a competition.'  
  
Ginny watched the Disciplina students with new suspicion, but was soon interrupted by the sudden appearance of a wizard in black-blue robes. His face expression matched his solemn attire.  
  
He introduced himself as their Flying teacher, Professor Laws, and handed each of them identical Nimbus 2000 broomsticks (A/N: Remember, my story is a lot later than the first Harry Potter book, so these brooms are pretty old now). Ginny clutched hers, grateful to hold something familiar. This was her very first lesson at Arx Aurea and she was determined to make a good impression.  
  
Meanwhile, Professor Laws had opened a sack, releasing golden flying objects. For a split second, Ginny thought they were Golden Snitches, but she soon saw that the objects were round and flat, like coins. They whizzed through the air for a few seconds, and then one lowered itself onto Vanessa's chest and stuck there. Her name was engraved in it.  
  
At the same time, many other 'name-tags' were finding their right owners, and soon one labelled 'Virginia Weasley, Fortuna' attached itself to Ginny's robes.  
  
'Alright,' Professor Laws said quietly, but so sharply that every student heard him. 'As you probably all know, today's lesson will consist of try- outs for the Arx Aurea Quidditch Team. I will simply watch your playing skills and then determine if you are suitable to play for the team.'  
  
Ginny saw every Disciplina student stand straighter, their heads raised resolutely. Her own courage quavered in uncertainty. Suppose- just suppose- everybody was better than her? Suppose- Ginny almost reddened at the thought- she fell off her broom? It had happened before when she was nervous.  
  
'Normally,' the teacher went on, 'I watch a Quidditch game between the two houses present as a try-out. But, as Fortuna is involved' -he glanced at the pupils in silver-lined robes meaningly- 'I will have to split you into two groups. First group is all people whose first names start with letters A-L. The second group consists of the rest. By the way,' he added suddenly. 'It is very likely that none of you will make the team. Usually only fourth and fifth year students are taken.'  
  
'That's really motivating,' muttered Amy, who had been standing beside Ginny, but was now moving over to join the other group.  
  
Ginny stared after her, brooding. Even though she had instructed herself firmly that she would not think about what had happened at breakfast today, the thought had slipped back when Amy spoke. Why had she done that? Why had she provoked Ginny into saying something mean about Dra- Malfoy? Or was that just part of her plan to set her up with him? If so, it didn't seem to be working, Ginny thought miserably, seeing the look of disbelieving hatred on Draco's face in her mind.  
  
Then she blinked rapidly and the picture disappeared. Don't think about it, she told herself stoically. Just don't think about it, and everything will be fine.  
  
Professor Laws, who had been busy with the opposing team, suddenly turned to their group.  
  
'So, what position do you want to play?' he asked Rachel, who was nearest to him.  
  
'Uh. last year I tried being Chaser. I'll go for Seeker this time,' was Rachel's answer.  
  
The Professor's thin lips turned upwards into a tiny smile, but then he was all business again and asked Ginny the same question.  
  
'Chaser,' she replied, without having to think much. It was an unspoken rule that when they played at the Burrow, Harry always was Seeker. Of course Fred and George had to be the Beaters, and Bill enjoyed being Keeper. That left Ron, Charlie and her to be the Chasers.  
  
Finally their team was all sorted out (Ginny could see that it was a very strange team, consisting of three Seekers, several pairs of Beaters, and two Keepers. The remaining four, including Ginny, took in a Chaser position).  
  
Worriedly, she discovered that the only other Fortuna Chaser was a grim- looking boy with a large nose she didn't know. The other two both flashed purple linings at her.  
  
Then, everything seemed to be happening at once. They all mounted their brooms and soared high above the pitch. The Bludgers and the Golden Snitch were released. And Professor Laws blew his whistle and tossed the Quaffle into the air.  
  
Ginny took a deep breath. She had better not screw this up.  
  
******************************  
  
'So, where are we going?' Draco asked Jason Asper as they both got up from the breakfast table. 'I mean, what do we have first class?'  
  
Jason strode ahead, a sour expression contorting his face. 'Latin,' he said finally.  
  
Draco almost sighed with relief, before checking himself. He must not show the other boy how glad he was to have a subject first which he knew he could do well. It would have been too awful to start with something like- well, Levitational Dance.  
  
They joined the throng at the Intersection and chose a large armchair that could seat both of them heading to the 'Atrium Cursi Latini' - the 'Room of the Latin Course', as Draco quickly translated.  
  
There was a brief flash of black and wind as they whirled through space, but then they came to a halt in a large room, which did look more like a hall than anything else. (A/N: Atrium actually means hall, but in a round- about way, it can mean room, too. I think. *g*)  
  
It was apparently designed in the style of the ancient Romans. The ceiling was dome-shaped and four large marble pillars adorned a large square pool of water in the middle of the room. Instead of ordinary desks and tables, there were couches and low tables. On each of these was an enormous book - a Latin dictionary.  
  
Some students were already sprawling on the low couches. There were not many, and all robes were lined with silver. These were the Fortuna 4th Years.  
  
Draco strutted to a free seat and, sitting down, started flipping through the great dictionary. Not that he needed it. His Latin was perfect and fluent, he was sure of that. But then, his mind wasn't on the endless columns of words and their definitions anyway. Devoid of anything but the red-hot scream for revenge which had been echoing in his head ever since breakfast, it was forming a plan of deadly accuracy.  
  
His scheming was interrupted by the entrance of the witch who had given Ginny the potion in the Sedes Aeris.  
  
She smiled at the class in a noble sort of way. 'Good day. For those who do not know me, I am Professor Callidam. The rules in my classroom are as follows: If everybody works hard and nobody makes mischief' - here she glanced at two girls, who exploded into giggles immediately - 'you will receive no homework except studying. But, should the lesson not meet my requirements, there will be homework. And extra homework, if need be. I suggest you stick to my terms,' she finished, still smiling serenely.  
  
Draco took the time to consider this. Professor Callidam looked as though she meant every word she said. But he wouldn't mind homework in an easy subject like Latin, as long as it wasn't copying out never-ending texts.  
  
The copper-haired girl seated in front of him groaned. Then she turned her head and risked a sly glance at Draco. He let his eyes travel over her slowly and intently, which made her turn around again quickly, blushing fiercely.  
  
Draco grinned and yawned. That trick always shut girls who were about to begin fawning over him up.  
  
The Latin Professor then handed out rolls of parchment to everybody. 'We will begin the year by translating the writings of the philosopher Mucius Culanus Vetus. Has anybody heard of him?' she asked the class expectantly.  
  
A girl with a long blond braid raised her hand tentatively and said rather hesitantly: 'Wasn't he the one that turned muggle or something?'  
  
'Absolutely right,' beamed Professor Callidam. 'Even though he was a pure- blood wizard for generations back, he came to believe that magic was against the laws of the universe, as it gave some men a huge advantage over others. His opinion was not widely shared, however, and it soon became obvious.' she droned on.  
  
Draco felt it safe to go back to imagining torturing Ginny. He would show her that he would never be anything but her enemy. He would show her who ruled over poor, pathetic creatures like her. And that was just the beginning.  
  
'Mister Malfoy? Draco Malfoy?' the Professor said in quite a different tone. 'Could you start us off with the translation?' It was evident from her cool smile that she expected him to be totally unprepared.  
  
But Draco unrolled the parchment smoothly and without the tiniest hint of being flustered. This was something he could do in his sleep.  
  
'Behold, and learn: there is nothing to gain from our magical abilities. They condemn us instead of releasing us from earthly troubles. We use them to separate ourselves as a better race from other people; we raise ourselves onto a golden platform higher than the rest of humanity. Where does this desire to define ourselves as worthier arise? It is our fear's fault. We fear to acknowledge that we belong to the human race of mortals. We close our eyes to truths because we do not want to admit carrying the same flaws in us as people without magical abilities. When will wizards learn that it is not the purest blood that flows through the bravest man? When will society cease to judge us by our birth, be it noble or humble? How long will we allow fear to dominate our souls and close our hearts forever? It is obvious that fear is the true reason we reach to magic to aid us, fear and lazy disposition.' he drawled expertly.  
  
'That's enough, Mister Malfoy,' Professor Callidam cut in primly. When Draco glanced up at her with a bored expression on his face, she glared at him. 'You left out 'omnium' in the third sentence,' she informed him frostily.  
  
'My mistake,' smirked Draco, skimming over the Latin words on the parchment. His heart was beating in the full triumph of his success. He was fully aware that all the students were staring at him in amazement and respect. 'So it's like this: We use them to separate ourselves as a better race from all other people,' he read out, putting emphasis on the 'all' he had forgotten the first time.  
  
At last, Professor smiled widely. 'I must say, that was an extremely good bit of translation, Mister Malfoy. Is it true that you learnt Latin as a small child?'  
  
Draco shrugged. This wasn't something he was very eager to focus on. Better let the other students think him brilliant without having learnt it all as a little kid.  
  
While the professor went on and on about Colanus' speeches, the words he had just translated came back to Draco.  
  
'When will wizards learn that it is not the purest blood that flows through the bravest man? When will society cease to judge us by our birth, be it noble or humble? How long will we allow fear to dominate our souls and close our hearts forever?'  
  
He tried to dismiss it as utter nonsense. How stupid of the man, talking about becoming muggle so that everybody would be the same. And what did that fear dominating souls and closing hearts mean? Some people were cowards. Fear ruled their souls. But it didn't close their hearts. Fear and opening your heart was the same thing. Only if you barred up that stupid soft spot inside, you could be fearless and gain something.  
  
Which I am, thought Draco, clenching his teeth. This is just some stupid phase. Wait till I get even with that Weasley trash. The one from the 'humblest' birth imaginable.  
  
The one that had taught him fear.  
  
**********************************  
  
'Ginny! Over here!'  
  
Ginny turned her head quickly, furiously ducking the opposing chaser who was trying to grab the Quaffle from her. To her left, close to the hoops and not surrounded by members of the other team, the girl with the long blond braid, whose name-tag read 'Marianne Ponté, Disciplina'.  
  
'Ten seconds left!' announced Professor Laws.  
  
Swerving upwards to allow herself a clear shot, Ginny focused all her remaining concentration and threw the Quaffle to Marianne, who caught it instantly and, before the Keeper realized she had it, put it through one of the hoops.  
  
'Game over!' the Flying professor called calmly. '4:3 for the first team.'  
  
'YES!' Ginny yelled along with her other team mates. She was hot and sweaty, but feeling wonderfully triumphant. Today she had played better than she had for a long time. Of course that probably had something to do with Marianne, the Disciplina girl. The two of them had made a really good team, seeming to always read each others thoughts and be there exactly when the other person needed her.  
  
Ginny found herself hoping the other girl would make the team. She appeared to be very nice, only a little shy. And she was a very good flyer.  
  
'Oh, I was so bad,' complained Rachel, alighting beside Ginny. 'I'm never going to get on the Quidditch team.'  
  
'There's always next year,' Ginny laughed, but stopped suddenly and added the words 'for you' under her breath. The next year would only bring Hogwarts again for her. Of course, Hogwarts was a second home to her, but a home in which there were so many boundaries and restrictions. At Hogwarts, she would never have been able to talk to Draco in any way but insulting. There was a bond between them, however slim and fragile. Ginny couldn't tell when it had formed, but it was there.  
  
Snap out of it, a voice in her head warned her. This is the guy who's tormented Ron, Harry and Hermione for years. The only thing that counts for him is money and reputation.  
  
'Virginia Weasley and Marianne Ponté,' Professor Laws called out in a dry voice. He was talking to all the students individually or in groups of twos.  
  
Ginny rather nervously walked over to him. The Disciplina girl with the blond braid joined her and smiled at her timidly.  
  
The Flying Professor cracked a rare smile. 'You two make a pretty good team. Best friends, are you?'  
  
Both girls shook their heads but eyed the other rather wistfully.  
  
'To have the two of you in the team probably wouldn't be bad.' he mused. Ginny's head spun. Was he saying that they were both going to be accepted?  
  
'But unfortunately, I can't take too many students from the younger grades,' he added. 'So I'll have to take the better one. Marianne Ponté, I'll expect you at practices every Thursday after school, alright?'  
  
She caught her breath and smiled in grateful relief, her eyes shining. The fleeting feeling of disappointment Ginny had experienced disappeared as soon as she caught sight of Marianne's happy face. She had really wanted to get on the team, while Ginny hadn't cared that much. It was right that she should be chosen.  
  
'You're the new student, right?' Professor Laws was looking at her thoughtfully. When Ginny nodded, he said quietly: 'You don't have much talent, but they must teach you decently at Hogwarts.' With that, he turned to the next pupil.  
  
Ginny had the feeling that 'decent' was a huge compliment coming from this professor. So, feeling pleased with having impressed him, even though she hadn't made it to the team, she spoke to Marianne: 'Hey, congratulations. I think you really deserved to get on the team.'  
  
The other girl looked rather surprised, but smiled. 'Thanks. I think he should have put you on the team too though. You fly very well,' she said shyly.  
  
Ginny waved this aside. 'Not really,' she confessed. 'Today was one of my good days. So, what class do you have next?' she asked.  
  
'Spells,' Marianne said with a little sigh. She looked troubled, as if there was some worry constantly nagging at her. 'I try, but it's always so hard for me to keep up at those kinds of subjects.'  
  
'I like Spells,' Ginny grinned, remembering tiny Professor Flitwick squeaking at them from the front of the classroom where he sat on his pile of books.  
  
She was just about to continue the conversation when Rachel ran up to her.  
  
'Ginny, come on, we have Latin now,' she exclaimed breathlessly.  
  
After quickly taking leave of Marianne, Ginny hurried with Rachel to one of the big golden armchairs that were still on the Quidditch field.  
  
One second, she could still see the bright blue sky, the emerald green grass, and the golden castle close by, and the next, she was in the building herself, in the Intersection. It was particularly busy at this time of day, when classes were changing, and students were dis- and appearing everywhere, laughing, talking, shouting. Two girls who couldn't be much older than Ginny arrived just beside them in another armchair, on which she could see 'Atrium Cursi Latinii'.  
  
'Come on,' Rachel urged again, pulling her onto the now deserted chair.  
  
'What's the hurry?' Ginny asked her friend, but her words were lost as they whirled through blackness for a second, and then landed beside a dazzling pool and fountain in a beautiful hallway, which was decorated with marble pillars.  
  
That was what she saw first. But immediately after that, she saw none other than Draco Malfoy, striding across the room with a smug expression on his face.  
  
Ginny had the urge to call out to him, but she bit it back, telling herself that even though they were at a kind of truce, they were still enemies. And they would be forever.  
  
Suddenly, Draco caught sight of her. His face expression changed dramatically from a pleased smirk, to a surprised shock, to bitter loathing. Ginny's heart sank. She could see the dark fury in his eyes, the grim hatred in the way his jaw tightened, and the open disgust in his arched eyebrows.  
  
In one overwhelming second, she wanted nothing more than to rush to him and apologize, to tell him that she hadn't meant what she had said, that Amy had provoked her into it.  
  
Instead, she tried with all her might to match his hostile glare and swept by him imperiously.  
  
When he had gone, she was left miserably remembering the strange dream and wondering why she felt so much like crying.  
  
***************************  
  
Uh. I hope all of you endured this to the end. only interesting bit in the whole damn chapter. but then, school is naturally boring, so I hope that's an excuse.  
  
Please review anyway, as you can see by my little acknowledgements, I'm really, really grateful to receive them.  
  
For example:  
  
Yami Fire Angel- hope u get the email soon.  
  
Liz Swarthy- i know it's taking too long. it's for dramatic emphasis (*j/k*).  
  
A13TAT- glad you think so, I was beginning to fall into depression (heehee) and there's some pretty WEIRD Draco in here  
  
Pseudonym Sylphmuse- hey, thanx, I'm really honoured when ppl put me on their favourite list. But I don't think I'll try a story completely separate till now. too hard.  
  
Slytherinangel- Ah, a true fan!  
  
Aqua-mere- You're welcome. It's nothing to do with smartness, though.  
  
Sad Strange Little Girl- yeah, I agree. D/H is screwy. I checked out your stories, really liked them! I'm not sure if I left a review or not cuz my computer's been doing weird things lately.  
  
Kelsey McCartney- that's encouraging. someone actually likes the weird way I write!  
  
The Dark Lady Adrienne- I LOVE your email address! Oh, and you got your message across pretty clearly. *looks around wildly for cover*  
  
elen- thanks for staying with this story for so long! Yeah, you can see Draco is very mad about the HP comment.  
  
StarNight- Wow. hear that, Draco? You have depth! Love the compliments, to me and him!  
  
KAOS- thank you for the reassurances. my fic called brilliant. makes me kind of proud. you'll definitely get an email as soon as I get this stupid thing posted, k?  
  
Tigerz_Angel- i know you won't believe me, but that was as soon as possible. Pathetic, isn't it?  
  
cooldot- yeah, I like tension too. but what i really want is some nice, sweet D/G! Can't seem to be able to fit it in, though. Sorry.  
  
Jenny-Amy- Anyone who likes D/G must be a kindred spirit, is what I say.  
  
Autumn Twilight- Actually, I already have a beta-reader. Well, I hope my excuse is satisfactory when I finally bring it out. I like keeping people in the dark. *grins evilly*  
  
The afore-mentioned, greatly-honoured cuty-cat has of course the place of honour in this chapter (right at the bottom). (See, wasn't it worth it to edit one tiny little chapter? Honestly!)  
  
Anyways. see you all asap, as always!  
  
Shooting Jewel (or SJ if you'd rather) 


	7. Mutual Threats

Mutual Threats  
  
OK, some of you may be waiting with baited breaths for Draco's full evilness to come out, but, just so you know, his plan for revenge isn't anything special. Just a little demoralizing. And Ginny can take care of herself. Most of the time.  
  
************************  
  
For a second Ginny was sure she would faint again, but she reprimanded herself so sternly that she was able to stay on her feet and walk calmly over to one of the couches, where she promptly collapsed.  
  
She didn't know why she cared about Malfoy's judgement, but she did. He would hate her forever now, and the door of friendship that had slowly been creaking open had slammed shut with a resounding bang.  
  
But there were others, Ginny reminded herself, as Tiffany, who was also settling down on one of the couches, smiled at her, her eyes twinkling with mischief.  
  
Ginny questioned her with a puzzled frown, to which the taller girl replied with a wink and a jerk of her head towards the group of golden chairs huddled in a corner of the hall-shaped classroom. They were disappearing quickly, as the older students seated themselves to leave the Latin Atrium.  
  
Stopping short in a jolt of realization, she saw Draco also striding off towards a chair. The back of his robes flashed the neon-pink letters 'I LOVE GINNY' at her.  
  
Ginny felt a surge of heat flooding over her, no doubt staining her cheeks as red as her hair. Her over-bright eyes glared at Tiffany, who was rolling on her couch in silent laughter.  
  
Luckily, Draco was swept away in another second, without having noticed that he was wearing his fated enemy's name on the back of his black robes.  
  
And, before Ginny had a chance to cool down her hot cheeks, the Latin teacher she had met before stood up and greeted the class.  
  
She started off by raising her wand. From the tip of it, a red mist emerged, which the professor prodded with her wand till it took the shape of a word.  
  
Fuga, read Ginny, her brows drawing together in worry. The nightmare she had been fearing had begun. The teacher was clearly asking a question and she had no idea how to answer it. She glanced around at Tiffany, and saw her face contort in concentration. Then, all of a sudden, it relaxed, and she drew out her wand and sent a message of red mist in the direction of Professor Callidam.  
  
As Ginny watched, rather startled, the word Tiffany had released ("flight") flew through the air and was about to join the teacher's, when another word of red mist sped across the room and reached it first.  
  
'Yes, fuga is flight. Very good, Mr Vide,' Professor Callidam told a boy with huge glasses who smirked across the room at Tiffany. She had been glowering at him furiously.  
  
'But it was a good effort, Miss Major,' the teacher observed. 'You may decline it for us.'  
  
Tiffany looked as though this was more than she had bargained for, but she began bravely: 'Fuga, uh, fugae, fugae, fugam, fuga. Then, in the plural. Fugae, fug-' There she stopped, shrugging at her teacher.  
  
'I could remind you, Miss, that you learned how to decline this years ago,' she said through pursed lips. 'However, considering your work last year, there has been an improvement. Miss Leat?' She turned on Vanessa.  
  
'Sorry, professor?' Vanessa, who had been scribbling on a piece of parchment, jumped nervously. 'What was the question?'  
  
'Judging by your inattentiveness, I suppose you are bored with declining nouns. Just as well. We shall move on to verbs.' The professor paused and swept an icy glance around the class and settled it on Vanessa again. 'The English definition of ferre, a Latin synonym, and the full conjugation of the present tense, please,' she rapped out in drill-sergeant manner.  
  
As Vanessa looked bleakly at their teacher, Ginny's mind reeled, trying to process all this information. How was she going to do it? There was absolutely no way she was going to be able to keep up with this class, not even if Professor Callidam helped her. It was probably a good thing she hadn't been chosen for the Quidditch team, Ginny thought a bit bitterly. She would never have been able to cope with extra Latin and Quidditch practices.  
  
The teacher must have seen her despairing expression, for she cut short Vanessa's stammers and instructed the whole class to do the assignment on parchment by themselves. Then she walked over to Ginny's couch and gave her a rare smile.  
  
'Now, I'll just start you off with the introductory vocabulary and basic grammar. After that, you'll find you can work on your own and be at the class' level very soon. If there is anything you don't understand, do not hesitate to ask me.' She paused for a second, and then added: 'Or Mr Malfoy might want to help you. He is quite an accomplished Latin scholar.'  
  
Ginny smiled warily and shrugged her shoulders. She really appreciated the Professor's help, but she couldn't imagine ever understanding anything that had something to do with Latin. And asking Malfoy for help would be suicide. Before breakfast, she could have considered it, but now - hopeless. Draco Malfoy would never speak to her again.  
  
***********************************  
  
Draco knew that something was wrong the minute two girls started giggling behind him. He had just got out of the golden chair which had transported him into the 'Pure Magic' classroom. Having no idea what this class was supposed to be, he was already feeling somewhat uncomfortable. It didn't help that he seemed to be an amusing sight for all the girls in the class.  
  
Suddenly, Jason appeared and hurried up to him. 'Sorry to have to tell you this, but you've got pink writing over the back of your robes,' he muttered as he passed him.  
  
For a second, Draco stood as though frozen, not believing what he had heard. Who had had the audacity to put pink - PINK! - writing on his robes? Or was Jason fooling him?  
  
Draco yanked his wand out of his pocket and touched the back of his robes with it. 'Latens appareat,' he said under his breath.  
  
Out of the tip of his wand shot a small, misty replica of the back of his robes. They were black and looked perfectly normal, except that there were indeed the shocking pink words 'I LOVE GINNY' emblazoned on them.  
  
Scowling as much as he could, Draco rapped out another spell and tapped his back with his wand again. Now, he trusted, the obnoxious writing would be gone.  
  
It was only then that he had a chance to look and wonder at his surroundings. There were no tables or books in this classroom. It seemed quite bare, except for various objects, such as spell books, rolls of parchment, cushions, a Quaffle and even several things that looked like iron bars, lying untidily on the otherwise spotless floor. The room sported large windows and was painted an immaculate white.  
  
By one of these windows stood a witch dressed in black robes. She waited until apparently all pupils were present and then marched over to join them.  
  
She was still quite young, had short brown hair and a square-jawed face. Her light blue eyes flashed with every word she spoke.  
  
'Where is Draco Malfoy?' was the first thing she demanded, in a deep, harsh voice.  
  
Draco narrowed his eyes. What the hell did she want him for? Still, he had to answer, though he did it grudgingly.  
  
'That's me,' he drawled, raising his eyebrows slightly at the witch. 'So, is it. uh, professor, or what?'  
  
A few gasps from the girls told him they had fully understood the insult he had placed into his sneering answer.  
  
But the witch merely looked him up and down with hawk-like eyes. 'Professor Sensit. So you're the one from Hogwarts?'  
  
'One of them,' Draco acknowledged, with a bored shrug. What was this crazy lady on about, anyway?  
  
'I was at Hogwarts too,' she told him abruptly. 'Have you never heard of Margaret Sensit?'  
  
He searched his memory, without much success. The name had a familiar ring to it, but he certainly couldn't place it.  
  
'Don't think so,' he said airily. 'It isn't my custom to learn the names of all the students who were at Hogwarts ten years ago by heart.'  
  
Professor Sensit studied him, if possible, even more intently than before. 'Let me guess. Slytherin?'  
  
'What's that?' piped up a girl who was running a comb through her hair.  
  
'A Hogwarts school house, Miss Auben,' replied the professor curtly. 'A very reputed one, too,' she added, her eyes flashing back to Draco.  
  
He smirked in return, mostly because he didn't know what else to do. With reputed, did she mean it had a good or a bad reputation? Was she on Slytherin's side or not? There was nothing to it but a straight question.  
  
'In what house were you, Professor?'  
  
For the first time since class had begun the teacher actually smiled. 'Find it out for yourself,' was her sly answer.  
  
Then she turned to the other class members and started introducing herself and 'Pure Magic' - it seemed this was the first year the pupils were taking it - and left Draco to think the conversation over.  
  
Something about Sensit bothered him. Margaret Sensit. he was sure he had heard that name before, but long ago. Maybe in one of his lessons at Hogwarts? That could be, but he didn't know in what context they would have talked about her.  
  
As if I didn't have enough to worry about, thought Draco bitterly. Practically the only thing that worked out for me today was the Latin class. Big deal.  
  
It couldn't make up for the vicious tumble of feelings that had been inside him since breakfast. No . that had been inside him since he had belatedly received his father's message.  
  
Trying to blot out that memory and the cold nausea that came with it, he focused instead on the Professor's brisk explanation.  
  
'The next question is, of course: What is Pure Magic actually?' The professor paused. 'Does anybody know?'  
  
A few hands were raised; the witch nodded towards the boy with the red hair Draco had met earlier that day.  
  
'The art of producing magic without a wand,' the boy replied promptly, but in a high-pitched, babyish voice. The class laughed and one girl blushed to a furious red. Obviously the boy had been imitating her.  
  
'Yes, Miss Veems,' Professor Sensit told him crushingly. 'It's also a way of relieving your feelings. Or aggressions,' she added, pointedly staring at the red-haired boy, who yawned as an answer.  
  
'Now,' the Pure Magic teacher instructed them briskly, 'find a place in the room and be careful not to be too close to anybody else. You don't want to hurt your fellow students.'  
  
Draco sauntered over to an unoccupied corner, wondering what on earth they were going to do. Produce magic without a wand? Stupid. Not to mention entirely unreliable.  
  
'OK, put your wand on the floor a few feet from where you're standing. Imagine you're being cornered and you need to get at your wand. Try to make your wand move towards you by concentrating on your inner powers,' Professor Sensit called out.  
  
Having put his wand some feet away from him, Draco stood there, feeling dumb. He glanced over at Jason, who shrugged at him, nonplussed.  
  
Well, if he couldn't do this it was time to make the teacher see that it was useless.  
  
'Professor? Exactly what good is this - uh, exercise - supposed to do us?' he drawled.  
  
Professor Sensit turned her fierce blue eyes on him immediately. 'Mr Malfoy,' she began, 'what would you do if Voldemort had you cornered, disarmed and helpless, and was pointing his wand at you to kill you?'  
  
Draco's insides froze. He tried to think, but his mind was a whirl of confusion. Did she know? Did she know that his father had contact with the Dark Lord? Did she know that he came from a family of Death Eaters? Or had she merely chosen that as an example that would impress him?  
  
She couldn't know, he finally decided. Outwardly, all he did was shrug.  
  
The teacher appeared satisfied, for she turned away and left him to his thoughts.  
  
**************************************  
  
With a deep sigh, Ginny let herself fall into a small golden chair. She was exhausted from the day's efforts. Latin declinations, magic spells and lunar calculations were jumbled in her brain.  
  
The chair whisked her away to the Intersection. Ginny got to her feet and started looking around her for transportation to her common room. The Intersection room was an awful mess, because pupils and teachers kept arriving and disappearing everywhere and mingling into an enormous crowd.  
  
Again, as if on instinct, Ginny's wide brown eyes swept the people milling about and hastily turned away, again. She had been doing this all day - for no particular reason. Refusing to believe that she was looking for a particularly silver-blond head, she could find no explanation.  
  
Suddenly, a hand timidly touched the sleeve of her robes. Turning around, Ginny saw Marianne Ponté - the Disciplina girl she had teamed up with in Flying.  
  
'Hi,' Marianne greeted her.  
  
'Hey, nice to see you again,' Ginny replied.  
  
'Had a busy day?' The Disciplina girl gestured at the stack of books Ginny was carrying.  
  
'You bet,' she answered, showing her the cover of a beginner's Latin book. 'This one in particular looks like a lot of fun.'  
  
'Basic Latin Grammar,' Marianne read aloud. 'Why did you get that?'  
  
Ginny explained about not ever having learnt Latin.  
  
'Don't worry, there are plenty of people who know absolutely no Latin and they've been doing it for years,' Marianne replied dryly. 'We have it together with the Forma students, and all I can say is, I wonder how they passed last year's exams.'  
  
Ginny laughed, suddenly comforted. Latin now seemed like a challenge, not a nightmare. Maybe Marianne could even help her with some of it.  
  
But before she could mention this thought aloud, her Disciplina friend was approached by another girl in purple-lined robes. She shot Ginny a depreciatory glance and said to Marianne: 'Come on, let's go to the common room, the others are waiting.'  
  
Reluctantly, Marianne said good-bye to Ginny and was pulled away by the other Disciplina girl.  
  
Ginny shrugged, remembering Rachel's moan of disappointment when she found out that they had Flying with the Disciplina students. Why did those two houses dislike each other?  
  
Turning around, she was about to search once more for a suitable golden chair or couch when she caught sight of her arch-enemy.  
  
Draco, looking bored but rather disgruntled, was passing through a thick mob of people. Then suddenly, he stopped and stared straight at her.  
  
What was he doing? Ginny found that her heart was pounding. He couldn't have forgiven her, so why was he smiling at her?  
  
The next moment, Malfoy strode towards her. But - that was no smile on his face. That was a smirk, and one that meant trouble.  
  
'Hey, Weasley!' he called out, eyes glittering. 'I completely forgot to ask you, how's your family? Surely you should already be smothered in letters from all your brothers who are so worried about their poor, helpless little sister. After all, she might be kidnapped by some bad Muggle - your father's own fault for playing buddies with them - or, who knows, she might have already collapsed from the effort of sucking up to every teacher.'  
  
A shout of laughter, seeming to come mostly from a group of guys in blue- lined robes, followed his insulting proclamation.  
  
Ginny felt as if the whole room was staring at her and bursting with laughter. Her cheeks grew hot with boiling rage, as she addressed Malfoy bitterly.  
  
'Or maybe she's been put into the same house as a Death Eater,' she spat.  
  
****************************************************  
  
Draco couldn't believe his ears. All he had done was try to get his own back for what had happened at breakfast, and now he was in the biggest mess imaginable. Most of the students in the room were looking around in a puzzled way, as if they didn't know what Ginny was talking about. A group of Fortuna girls looked up from their chatting, alarmed.  
  
He had been praying this wouldn't happen. Deep down, he had been hoping against hope that Ginny would never mention anything like this. Anything that could be used against him. But now, she had done it. And there was no escape left for him.  
  
Summoning up all the feelings of hatred and revenge that had been steaming inside him since Ginny's first insult, he bounded across the room towards her, quickly found a rather large armchair that was labelled 'Private Reading Room Nr. 3', grabbed the startled Ginny by her wrist, and pulled her into the chair with him. The Intersection whirled into nothing before their eyes.  
  
******************************************  
  
The room they landed in was quite dark; only an enchanted torch blazed red. But that was the only thing about the room Ginny took in. She was furious - she wanted to yell at Malfoy - kick him - hit him. This was one of his stupid jokes, no doubt.  
  
'What-', she started angrily, but was cut off when Draco pushed her heavily against the wall and held her there. His face was millimetres from her own, and the expression there scared her.  
  
His jaw was tight, merciless, his teeth were clenched in fury, and his eyes looked ready to kill.  
  
Ginny choked her words back and emitted a dry sob. She regretted it the moment it had left her throat. Now he would think she was scared, which was not true.  
  
She stared at him perplexedly. This was Draco, a Slytherin and her enemy, but not a person she should fear. She remembered how awkward he had looked when she had fainted on him - or he had caught her - the bloodied sweater in the Transport, and the smirk which showed more amusement and teasing than real meanness.  
  
'Don't you have a brain?' he whispered fiercely. 'Can't you think? Can't you imagine what would happen if the word got out who my father is?'  
  
'I think your housemates have a right to know who they're dealing with,' Ginny replied, struggling and failing to keep her voice cool and uninterested.  
  
Draco grabbed her shoulders and flung them against the wall again, making Ginny scream as her head hit the hard surface. Then he tugged out his wand and forced her chin up with the tip of it.  
  
'Look,' he hissed hoarsely. 'You know I can perform a killing curse - or any of the other Unforgivable curses. You know I can get to you anywhere. You know I'm smart enough for that. Now, I suggest if you know all that, you'll keep your mouth shut about me and my background. Got it?'  
  
His voice spoke ultimate rage and loathing. The red light flickering across his face glinted in his evilly slit eyes. He looked half crazy - and half deadly serious.  
  
The feeling in her that had at first been bewilderment and unease rapidly turned into fear. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. Draco Malfoy could and would kill her if she gave him the chance. And she had thought he had nearly been her friend. She wouldn't have been as scared of a random killer, but she was petrified of the truly evil side of the person she had thought she knew.  
  
She wanted to scream out hysterically, but she couldn't find her voice. Her whole body was tightened into unnatural stiffness, and she felt if she could just move she would be sick.  
  
It was no wonder then, that her forehead began to throb wildly, and her consciousness to leave her.  
  
******************************************  
  
Draco glared at the trembling girl in front of him in grim triumph. He knew he could hate her properly, and now he did. Cowering, scared, panicked little fool. The red firelight danced in her huge brown eyes, opened wider than he had ever seen them. He knew she was frightened to death.  
  
That was when he made his mistake. He gazed into her glassy eyes, void of everything now, and felt a sharp and heaving jolt in his stomach. He knew the pain was visible on his face, but he couldn't remove it and assume his detesting mask. It was like last night, when he was facing his father.  
  
Now feeling only hatred for himself, he shoved Ginny against the wall one last time - something inside him screamed out in pain when he did it - and whirled around, his robes flinging behind him.  
  
Well, he thought with bitter regret and disdain, at least I've done what father asked. I threatened her till I was positive she'd never say a word.  
  
He was just about to bound into the lone golden chair waiting where he had left it and disappear, when a mixture between a piteous call and a tormented sob reached him, followed by a soft thump.  
  
'Draco!'  
  
Slowly, battling furiously within himself, he turned around again.  
  
Ginny was sprawled face-down on the floor as if she had just collapsed there, her silky red hair tumbling over her shoulders and screening her face. In the distorting light her slight frame looked wrecked. She looked dead.  
  
Draco hung back, looking in horror and disgust at the figure on the floor. Then a desperate, but commanding, desire took over.  
  
He raced over and threw himself on his knees beside her. As gently as he could with his trembling fingers, he turned her over and lifted her head into his lap.  
  
Her face was drawn and pale. Immobile. But when he touched it, fearing her to be truly dead, she stirred and her eyelids flickered.  
  
Utterly confused, Draco stared as her face, completely opposite from the panic it had worn before, broke into a radiant smile and her eyes, though still enormous for her small face, lit up like two stars.  
  
'Thank you, Draco,' she whispered, reaching out a pale hand to clasp his fingers.  
  
And that made up for everything: all the pain, disappointment and suffering he had ever experienced was somehow bathed in warmth. And he was holding this warmth in his hands; it was his.  
  
Happiness and sorrow, bitterness and peace, they were all ringing in him till he couldn't bear it anymore.  
  
Ginny's head slipped from his knees, and he lost all control.  
  
He bent over her and touched his lips to hers, kissing her over and over again. He wasn't even worrying about if she was answering his tenderness or not. He was simply racing against time, willing her not to regain consciousness yet. He knew he would never have another chance to feed the starved part of his heart.  
  
He hovered over her, letting her warmth, her safety, and her smile sink into him. Ginny's hand stole up to the side of his face and drew it down close to hers. This time it was she who bridged the small space between their lips, holding him to her.  
  
And then, before he could do anything more, he felt her slipping from him. The soft lips that had been pressed against his fell back, and her arm slid off his shoulder.  
  
With a last kiss that was passionate in his despair, he got up and pulled Ginny's once more limp form across the floor to the golden chair. When he had heaved her and himself into it, the private reading room vanished, and they were back at the mercifully empty Intersection.  
  
Guilt knotting itself in his stomach, Draco left the girl slumped in the chair and headed off to another transport bringing him to his common room. He half yearned that some idiot would be showing off his stupidity there. If there was one thing he needed now, it was distraction.  
  
Distraction from the awful thing he had done.  
  
***************************************  
  
*coughs* I'm really embarrassed about this, people, I wanted to do some nice D/G sap - finally - but, the way it turned out, it looks more like some freak attack Draco had. (Bad doggy! Stay!) So anyways, hope you're not too grossed out. Also not by Ginny's paralyzing fear. You just have to remember, she's not herself at the moment. And, let's face it - wouldn't you be creeped out if a mad guy was threatening you? I'll leave that for you to decide.  
  
Greetings and heartfelt thanks, O Worthy Reviewers! *bows low*  
  
cuty-cat - yeah, can't u imagine how cute that's gonna be? Draco and Ginny, studying Latin together. *snicker* And a tip: next time you're bored at school in the computer room, check out Gundam Wing sites and write them down!  
  
Liz Swarthy - yeah, D/G absolutely rulez when it comes to HP. Well, you'll absolutely love him in this chapter then. he's totally unholy!  
  
Taunting Ave - hope you haven't died yet. *grin*  
  
Sesshiria - thank you, I don't think he's too bad myself. But it isn't hard to write. Just think EVIL. *g*  
  
Arianell - me too, tho I think Hogwarts is still the best. *sighs* Note to self: put in Ginny and Draco riding off into Sunset.  
  
Pandora666 - i will continue, no problem with that. it's the updating SOON that I have major difficulties with.  
  
Larien - cool. you study Latin, too! I really love the Fortuna suam sequi. might put that in. Do you mind?  
  
Diana - the swimming pool? Haven't thought much about that yet, but it will be used, preferably by our favourite couple!  
  
caitlin aka ruler of the world - *sniff* someone loves my story. sorry, I'm in a depressive mood today, so this really means a lot to me!  
  
Angela Ang - with any luck I'll update soon. summer holidays are in sight!  
  
Witch am I - here you are, the new chapter, served on a silver platter it doesn't deserve. *g*  
  
May the Hold and Fair cuty-cat continue to be my editor and give me her Outstanding advice! *j/k, and u noe it*  
  
I herewith depart,  
  
Shooting Jewel 


	8. Levitational Dance & Legilimency

A/N: Sorry, everybody, I know I should have been updating much sooner, but my computer didn't agree with you, so I'm a bit (half a year) behind schedule. But the story's gonna keep going, better and faster than before, I hope, so you can look forward to unrealistic, boring or sappy chapters. Happy? Good!  
  
P.S.: Important notice on the story: There are about 450 students at Arx Aurea, and since there are four regular and one 'exclusive' house, Forma, Fortitudo, Liveralitas and Disciplina all have 100 pupils, while Fortuna has 50. That means that with five grades, every grade in Fortuna consists of roughly 10 people (20 for the other houses). Divide these into boys and girls, and there are approximately 5 girls and 5 boys in one Fortuna grade (10 boys and 10 girls in the others). Tell me if you follow my mathematical calculations, math isn't exactly my best subject!  
  
********************************  
  
Legilimency & Levitational Dance  
  
There was a sharp, irritating pain in Ginny's left arm. It felt as if someone were poking her, maybe with a wand. There were voices, too - or was that one voice, just being blurred into many?  
  
Ginny's eyes snapped open. They took in an unfamiliar hall, littered with unfamiliar golden chairs, and the unfamiliar face of a girl peering at her.  
  
After Ginny had blinked again, the fog in her brain cleared, and she looked at the scene through a different perspective: this was the Intersection at the Arx Aurea, her school, and she was sitting in one of the travelling chairs herself. Only the wide-eyed face in front of her remained unknown to her memory.  
  
'Are you alright?' the girl, who had to be more than a year younger than her, asked timidly.  
  
Still considering this, Ginny answered automatically: 'Yes, I'm fine. What happened? Did I go to sleep here?' Her head certainly felt as though she had overslept for hours.  
  
'No, you were lying here in a faint when I arrived,' the girl said, looking a bit uncomfortable. 'I didn't know what to do, so I just poked you.' She shot Ginny a swift, slightly embarrassed smile.  
  
'Well, thanks for - waking me up,' Ginny told her, getting to her feet rather shakily. 'What time is it?' It was still not possible for her to remember what had happened. She had fainted - of course, she had been doing that a lot lately, because of the accident coming here, she reminded herself. But what had it been this time?  
  
Her slightly short rescuer was quick to answer: 'It will be five in a minute. Actually, I should get going, or I'll be late.' But she made no signs of leaving, looking up at Ginny expectantly.  
  
Ginny guessed what she wanted. 'Where are you going to?' she asked interestedly, though she was still trying to retrace what had happened. School had been over, she had been talking to Marianne from Disciplina -  
  
'Levitational Dance practice', the girl replied proudly, flipping her curly blond ponytail over her shoulder.  
  
That did catch Ginny's attention. One look at the younger girl's red ribbons told her she was in Forma - but what did that name stand for again?  
  
The Latin definitions and their English translations clogging up her mind, she asked: 'Aren't you a little young to be in the Levitational Dance Company? I mean, I'm new here, so I don't know how everything works, but they only take much older pupils for the Quidditch team -'  
  
She was cut off by a vigorous shake of the Forma girl's head. 'Oh, no, you're right; normally I would probably be too young to join the Company, and I'd have to audition in any case, but you see, Professor Kelsey is my mother, so -' she stopped and made a significant gesture with her hand.  
  
Professor Kelsey? Ginny knew at once that she couldn't ask about her, but in her confusion she really didn't remember who she was. She had to be connected to Levitational Dance in some way - a brilliant smile and glittering white robes flashed up in her mind. The witch from the transport, of course!  
  
'Oh,' she said in a voice respectful enough for the occasion. 'Professor Kelsey was the one who accompanied us in the Sedes Aeris. She didn't say she had a daughter.'  
  
The other girl shrugged, losing her smug self-confidence as quickly as it had come to her. 'Well, so of course she told me when the first practice is, and I'm going to watch the dancers and participate too. At least, I hope so.' She looked so worried and doubtful that Ginny smiled reassuringly at her, even though she was trying hard to remember just what had happened before she had fainted.  
  
'Do you want to come, too? I could tell mum I'm showing you around the school and just taking you with me.'  
  
The question startled Ginny, but she was immediately caught by it. Finally seeing what Levitational Dance was about would be very interesting, especially as she still couldn't imagine anything that would suit the term. Her consciousness did make her glance rather guiltily at her books, but there would be time for those later.  
  
'OK, thanks for inviting me; I'm sure it will be fun.' No sooner had Ginny said it than the girl squealed happily and, confidently taking her hand, led her among the chairs and couches until she found one that was labelled 'The Levitational Dance Company Practice Studio', a name that Ginny would come to know very well over the next year.  
  
************************************  
  
'Yeah, Draco, just the guy I need!'  
  
Draco Malfoy was greeted with this relieved cry as soon as he appeared in the Fortuna Boys' Common Room.  
  
Some guys were lounging in front of a fireplace ( in which black fire was crackling and shooting brightly-coloured sparks at them), others sat at the desks that stood against the walls, doing homework or constructing lavish ink wars.  
  
It took Draco some time to recognize the walls for what they were - they had been bewitched to look like a galaxy, complete with moving planets. A second look informed him that the floor and ceiling looked the same, so that the whole room appeared to be hovering in space.  
  
Just copied from the Great Hall's ceiling back at Hogwarts, Draco remarked mentally. He still refused to think well of Arx Aurea. The whole school was ludicrous and flashy. And most of the students fit right in, probably including the boy who was calling him over.  
  
'Hey, come on, help me out, buddy; Laura and Tina won't let me copy theirs and Tim's hopeless anyway - can't figure out anything! Please!' the boy from his dormitory - the Ron-Weasley-hair-double - was imploring him from his perch on a vividly orange see-through water bed. A huge book and several rolls of smirched or blank parchment surrounded him.  
  
'Help you?' Draco put extra arrogance into his tone of voice. 'When Smarty Tim can't figure it out?' He of course knew nothing of the person he was insulting, but he had learned never to accept directly when he was asked for help. Then, not even listening to the small, uneven wave of laughter that circled the room, he was suddenly tired of forever trusting his eloquence to get him out of trouble and dropped his sneering attitude.  
  
'Joking aside, what do you need help with?' Draco asked brusquely, striding over to the red-haired boy, who looked at him with both anxiety and eagerness.  
  
'Latin homework,' he groaned, showing Draco a column of miniscule Latin words forming the endless sentences they had to translate. They tempted him; he loved showing off what he was good at, but he didn't want to be pinpointed as a geek who pathetically thought that if he helped everybody with their homework, he would be popular.  
  
Besides, he had an idea. 'How about a deal?' Draco suggested slyly, enjoying the power his 'talent' gave him. 'I dictate the translation to you, and you copy it twice - once for you and again for me.'  
  
The Weasley-hair-double hesitated, eying Draco as if he wasn't sure he was trustworthy.  
  
'OK,' he finally agreed, 'but if I find out tomorrow that my homework is wrong, I'll bewitch Fatso here to beat you up.' Grinning, he indicated an enormous Latin dictionary.  
  
'Don't worry, I know how to handle Latin, whether it's a translation or a dictionary,' was Draco's ambiguous answer.  
  
'No problem then,' said the boy who Draco was beginning to think of as R.W.D. (Ron Weasley's double), but was liking a lot better than the original back at Hogwarts. He shifted his weight on the water bed to allow the transfer student some room and handed him the roll of parchment, where the homework column was already marked.  
  
The few people around them who had been watching the interchange, turned back to whatever they were doing, and the noise enveloped them again.  
  
Just before he immersed himself in the delicate work of unwinding complicated Latin sentence structures, Draco looked over the common room again, searching for something that appeared to be missing. When he realized he was wondering where Jason was, he was so surprised to find out he thought of his solemn room mate as practically the only friend he had here, that he didn't even stop to wonder where he was.  
  
************************************  
  
Even though she had imagined the practice room to be beautiful like the rest of the school, Ginny still got a delightful surprise when they appeared at their destination.  
  
The room was surrounded on all four sides by mirrors. When she slipped off the armchair and onto the pearly floor of the palest green, she noticed it gave with every step she took. The ceiling was of the same material and colour.  
  
Several clouds of glittering golden stars hovered in one corner of the room. As Ginny watched them, entranced, a tall girl materialized out of one of them and joined the group that was watching the newcomers curiously.  
  
All five of them were dressed in the same shiny pale green leotards, their hair tied up loosely and their legs and feet bare. One girl was stretched down on the soft floor in the splits, causing Ginny to feel very out of place.  
  
Just as Ginny's companion was opening her mouth to introduce herself, her mother appeared in person.  
  
Ginny just had time to recognize the witch with the platinum blond hair and the wide smile as Professor Kelsey when she was approached by her.  
  
'Oh, dearie, here you are! I hope your wound isn't hurting you, I heard all about what happened in the transport. Are you in pain?' Her sweet, dramatic voice rose in anxiety as she gazed at Ginny, for once without a brilliant smile.  
  
'No, I'm fine,' Ginny assured her and, taking the opportunity to explain why she was here, added: 'I met your daughter and she was showing me the school . . .'  
  
She got no further, because at this point Professor Kelsey noticed her daughter and introduced her to the girls in leotards as her only child Heather, already a very good Levitational dancer.  
  
The group was clearly impressed and greeted Heather kindly, but their eyes flicked interestedly over to Ginny. From Kelsey's remarks it was obvious that she was one of the transfer students, which was enough to rouse anybody's curiosity at Arx Aurea.  
  
'Well, darling, go change; you brought your leotard, didn't you?' Professor Kelsey was instructing her daughter. Heather nodded meekly, apparently scared and a bit shy in front of the others and walked right into the nearest patch of stars, disappearing as she went.  
  
Her mother looked after her fondly, then addressed her dancers: 'Right, is there anybody who disapproves of taking Heather Kelsey into the company?' Judging by their reaction, none of the girls had any complaints to the issue, and their teacher seemed satisfied.  
  
Ginny was beginning to feel out of place, just standing there apart from the others. Luckily Professor Kelsey noticed her again before she could get too embarrassed and told her kindly that she could watch the class if she wanted to.  
  
'After all,' she told Ginny confidingly, 'if you've never seen Levitational Dance it's best if you find out how it works, otherwise you'll have trouble in lessons, won't you?'  
  
This remark did not cheer Ginny up, as she was already worried about getting all her homework and extra Latin done. What if she was a failure at the dancing lessons, too?  
  
After ten minutes of the practice had gone by, Ginny was certain. There was no way she could ever manage to do this. Alone the stretching that the company did on the floor seemed impossible, as they appeared to fold up their bodies into the most awkward positions.  
  
Following that came the jumping. Each student would leap gracefully into the air - and hover there for half a minute before slowly drifting to the floor again. Every one of them, even little Heather, managed this exercise completely effortlessly to Ginny's untrained eye.  
  
As Ginny watched disbelievingly how the members of the Levitational Dance Company went into perfectly straight hand-stands and attempted to push themselves off the floor and into the air like that, she wished wholeheartedly that she could one day have their grace, athleticism and the remarkable talent to simply lift herself up into space.  
  
****************************  
  
Amazingly, Draco was getting on well with R.W.D.. Because he didn't dare say anything about his father or his family in case it roused suspicion, the only bragging in his conversation was about his Latin accomplishment, and the other boy obviously thought he had a right to do so. R.W.D.'s real name was Steve Primac, and he was funny, swore continually, and, the best quality of all, admired Draco to no end. Also, criticism seemed to bounce right off him.  
  
'Hey,' Steve commented, frowning over the sentence Draco had just dictated, 'there aren't any men in here, and I'm sure there was a vires in the Latin sentence.'  
  
'You idiot,' Draco smirked, enjoying himself immensely, 'you've just made the oldest mistake in history. Vir means man, but the plural is viri, not vires. That comes from vis, which means strength or violence. Got it?'  
  
R.W.D. only remarked: 'Oh, sorry, I always get those two mixed up.' Which made him even more agreeable in Draco's eyes.  
  
Then he carefully rolled up the parchment with his homework on it and, hurling the rest of his Latin equipment onto the floor, let himself fall backwards onto the water bed. 'Yay, my homework's done for another day!'  
  
'And where's my copy?' Draco demanded, cocking an eyebrow. Steve good- naturedly handed it over, remarking casually: 'We definitely have to go into business, pal. Man, that's my tough luck for not being enrolled in Hogwarts! Any school that can turn out Latin pros like you and good-looking girls like that Virginia must be amazing!'  
  
Draco smirked at the first part of his statement and openly laughed at the last. 'Good-looking?' he sputtered before he even thought about it. 'What, have you joined a weasel fan club or something?'  
  
Even as he was still talking, Draco felt the iciness grip his stomach. He had been distracted as soon as he had entered the common room, but now he remembered and could have slapped himself for his comment.  
  
Half an hour after he'd kissed the damn Weasley - not just once, not to annoy her, but when she was unconscious! - he was insulting her in front of others. So what if R.W.D. thought Ginny attractive? It was probably a red hair thing. He was just really lucky nobody had seen him and that Ginny would never remember.  
  
Steve had been staring at him as if he had suddenly turned into a Hippogriff and a few other guys had also turned around with a disbelieving frown.  
  
'You mean the Ginny from Hogwarts?' one asked, astonished. 'Weasel fan club? She's ho- oh, hi, Professor Sole!'  
  
A tall witch had just appeared, regally sitting on a golden chair. Draco vaguely recognized her as the woman who had greeted them when they first arrived. It seemed so long ago that it was hard to image it had been only yesterday . . . but the hell had already started then, he just hadn't known it.  
  
'Good afternoon, Mr Parving,' the professor smiled at the boy who had spoken. There was an almost undetectable sarcasm in her voice, but Draco heard it and was on the alert. You never knew what people with such a softly sneering disposition would do. He had had enough experience with his father.  
  
Meanwhile, the queen on the throne was examining her students, who were all looking at each other rather puzzled, some of them guiltily.  
  
Cocking one eyebrow, Draco waited, resigned to what seemed to him to be his uncannily bad luck. Sure enough, when the witch turned her face towards him, her smile broadened, and she said quietly: 'Draco Malfoy. A word in my office.'  
  
He smirked an unwilling 'Fine, professor' at her, just before stiffening in shock and dropping his head so he was staring at the shiny surface of the water-bed he was still sitting on. His head and heart thumped in unison.  
  
He heard the collective rise of the noise level which marked the witch's departure, but he didn't dare look up until Steve nudged him.  
  
'You better go, dragon boy, she'll be nicer to you if you're on time.'  
  
Instinctively making a face at the ridicule his name was being made into, Draco asked the question that was haunting him: 'Who is she?'  
  
R.W.D.'s face split into an evil grin. 'Our Headmistress. What do you think of her?'  
  
Welcome to nightmare school, was the only thing Draco thought, letting himself fall backwards onto the water-bed in exhaustion. His headmistress could do Legilimency. And how.  
  
*****************************  
  
A/N: Big apologies from author. I really had honestly planned not to let the fifth HP book interfere with my story, cuz I started writing this when it wasn't out yet, and I would have definitely done some things completely different if it had been. But this time I couldn't help myself. It just fits! For those of you who haven't realized what I'm up to yet, Professor Sole is a mind-reader. (Thank you for the definition, Snape, but I'm a muggle, so I might as well call it mind-reading).  
  
Also sorry that nothing happens in this chapter till the cliffie at the end. . . very popular choice for frustrated writers who have only just reread their chapter, decided it sucks, and therefore have shoved in some of their plot which was supposed to come later. See my earlier chapters, I do it all the time!  
  
OK, now I'm REALLY rambling, I'd better cough up the thanks to my reviewers from somewhere within my 'nicer' self.  
  
Luv you all:  
  
Diana - don't we all feel sorry for Draco once in a while? I mean, let's face it, he always gets the raw end of the deal in all DG fics. But I'm so happy you don't think him OOC here. Must be my evil Slytherin influence *grins*  
  
Liz Swarthy - wow, me writing cool, unholy things? Never heard that before, it's so nice of you to say so *sniff* I'm touched.  
  
Ms K - can't really help it, Draco is so cool (not to mention hot - at least the way I imagine him) that I just have to have a way to show him at his best! And it's kind of you to say I have a good storyline, been kinda worried about that.  
  
The Totally Sarcastic Sprite - hm, was that sarcastic or not? *j/k*  
  
Taunting Ave - great idea, marketing toy Dracos. . . can't you just see sadistic authors toying with him? And I'm honoured, can I be invited to the toga party? *j/k* Oswari - you're confused? Nothing new, I have trouble keeping up with the story myself! But seriously, you can email me anytime you like and I'll answer your questions and hopefully clear up a few confusions. C ya!  
  
Julie - don't worry, I'll email you. . . as if I would miss the chance to get another review!  
  
Anjelline - no flames about the late updating, please, if you want to blame somebody, burn off my computer. Yay, that would be fun. . . or maybe not, cuz then I could never update again. Anywayz, hope you review again if you're always so nice!  
  
Thanks to you all, I'm in a much better mood now. . . just love reading complimentary reviews. Or any other ones, for that matter.  
  
Hope you get all the stuff that my beta-reader (Arabian Knight) has sensibly pointed out to me as extremely difficult to understand. Thanks to her as well. (Oh, please, do I really have to say this every single time? *j/k*)  
  
Till next time,  
  
Shooting Jewel 


	9. Levitational Dance & Legilimency II

Hello, I'm Shooting Jewel. . . Just thought I'd probably have to reintroduce myself as nobody on ff has heard even a squeak from me for the last . . . innumerable months. I'm really sorry that this chapter is, again, more of a filler than anything else, though it plays Draco's character up a bit and reveals some of his history (at least, the one I have invented for him. I'm sure he doesn't mind . . .). Plus he might seem more evil here, cause I'm re-reading all the HP books and have decided that my Draco has been a little OOC so far. Anyway, I can't promise it will never take this long again to update this story, but as long as not everybody is so discouraged they stop reading altogether, I will definitely continue writing, cuz I love it! So, here's the continuation of last chapter, as the title already says:  
  
**Levitational Dance & Legilimency II**  
  
While searching for a chair that would transport him to his doom – the Headmistress' office – Draco feverishly tried to rid his mind of anything that could be counted against him. By trapping his gaze for that brief period of time, Professor Sole had already seen some images he would have done almost anything to keep from her.  
  
. . . he was just a small kid, sitting helplessly beside a small, lifeless puppy, rubbing his eyes so hard it hurt to try to stop the tears – the last time he had cried from grief, not pain . . .  
  
. . . out on the Hogwarts Quidditch field, second year, Harry Potter was diving towards him, and neatly caught the snitch that had been hovering right beside him while he had been laughing...   
. . . he was fifteen, and was standing bruised, yet triumphant, in front of a Dementor without showing any sign of weakness or fear, while his father looked approving . . .  
  
Suddenly a golden sofa appeared right beside him, occupied by a group of people who were obviously teachers. One of them Draco even recognized, a tall wiry man with iron-grey hair who was his new Spells teacher – Professor Cockle. He had not taken much notice of him, mostly because of his nondescript appearance and mannerisms. The professor was accompanied by another man who looked strict enough to rival McGonagall, and a middle-aged woman wearing dark purple velvet robes and as much jewellery as his mother had ever owned, Draco mused.  
  
'Oh, Mr Malfoy,' Professor Cockle said in the quiet voice he always used. 'Professor Sole is already waiting for you in her office.'  
  
At this point the other man started and moved forward quickly. 'This is Draco Malfoy?'  
  
'No, I'm my twin brother,' Draco retorted. It was nerve-racking to stand here and be goggled at by some idiot teachers when he would have to face the real, much more dangerous enemy any moment now.  
  
He could see that his answer shocked the witch, had no effect on Professor Cockle, and amused the other wizard.  
  
'Well, tell your brother from me that I've heard he has played for his school Quidditch team and am looking forward to his performance at his next Flying lesson,' he said with a smirk that rivalled Draco's own.  
  
Scowling, the young blond muttered: 'Well, I have to go see **your** headmistress now', with slight emphasis on 'your'. He wanted no part of this school, even though the attention from the Flying teacher was flattering.  
  
. . . Harry Potter shooting through the air, his hand eagerly clamping around the snitch, inches from his own face which was contorted with fury . . .  
  
Turning away from the three real figures and the shadow one in his head, Draco continued looking for the chair, that, he decided, must not exist at all. The whole situation was completely out of his depth.  
  
Suddenly, he was aware of the witch striding towards him. Saying not a word, she clamped surprisingly rough fingers around one of his wrists and led him to a small golden arm-chair. The words 'Headmistress' Office' on it almost made Draco sigh from both relief and weariness. The greatest menace was still to be tackled.  
  
Judging by experience that the witch was expecting gratitude, he cocked an impudent eyebrow at her and was about to let himself drop into the chair and disappear, when she pressed her fingers on his arm again and spoke. Her voice was dusty, old and full of an ancient and timeless wisdom.  
  
'To know a man you must have walked a thousand miles in his moccasins.'  
  
On instinct, Draco dropped into his seat, still gazing stupidly up at the witch's face. Not even he could think of a suitably deprecating comment to that.  
  
Just before the world around him turned into the blackness of the travel, the teacher's eyes widened and her mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't.

* * *

The dance looked like a room of statues had suddenly come gracefully alive. While two of them were turning slow cartwheels in the air, another was doing rapid turns that took her high off the floor each time. Still others formed a revolving pyramid with the lowest members hovering inches from the floor.  
  
Ginny watched, entranced, as a suddenly authoritative Professor Kelsey directed the whirling dancers in front of her by calling out things like 'Higher up, girls' – 'Keep your weight on your left foot, Miriam' or by flourishing her wand so that sparks shot out of the end and attacked the dancer who was not performing as she wanted her to.  
  
For Ginny, it was hard to understand how you could criticize anything in the dance, even though that might be due to her inexperience. Vaguely she recalled clumsily shuffling about with Neville at the Yule Ball – but that was a different world from the beauty and agility here. She suddenly wished, grinning, that Professor McGonagall could see this. It would certainly change her mind about the worth of levitational dance.  
  
Her grin growing broader, she imaged Malfoy seeing this – he would hit the roof when he found out that he was going to be expected to dance like that.  
  
And that was all it took. Malfoy's outraged expression in her imagination triggered a sudden torrent of memories. The red light reflected in his hate- frenzied eyes, the twisted grimace he had managed to change that normally smug, superior-looking face into. And the brute violence with which he had flung her against the wall, forced her chin up to meet with the full force of his hatred. There were no words for his voice.  
  
Ginny shivered, the splendour of the dance lost on her as she heard that voice again in her head. He could kill her, easily, and he was going to. With a painful bitterness she realized that Draco Malfoy was not who she had thought him. The exchange of humiliating taunts and insults that had hurt her so much was only a children's quarrel to him. He was capable of so much more. Threats. Violence. Murder. A killing machine, serving his Dark Lord. And she had wanted to be his friend.  
  
The outlines of the dancers becoming blurry before her eyes, she cried out silently: How could a killing machine comfort her? How could she dream about lying in a killing machine's arms, protected by it? There was no answer to the problem Draco Malfoy. But one thing was sure: he was dangerous.  
  
Suddenly Ginny became aware that the dance had ended. Hastily, she clapped her hands, feeling awkward as the only guest. But the girls from the Levitational dance company smiled gratefully at her, and Professor Kelsey's severe face expression – Ginny had not known that the ever-smiling teacher could look severe – softened.  
  
'Yes, well done, girls,' she conceded. 'But –' Now followed a long commentary of corrections and improvements, which rapidly turned into a complaint that they had become stiff and lazy during the long summer holidays.  
  
Except for some rolling of eyes, everyone accepted this meekly. Ginny had a first whiff of how hard and straining the beautiful work might be, but she was feeling as if Draco Malfoy was closing in on her from all sides. It was hard for anything to penetrate that terrifying mind-barrier.  
  
Just as she was trying to quell the thought that it would be easiest to faint again, the dancers were dismissed and hurried into the clouds of stars, presumably to get changed.  
  
The professor, smiling widely again, approached Ginny: 'Well, does it look like fun?'  
  
Ginny grabbed hold of the picture in her mind featuring the spinning dancers, glad to have something to distract her. 'Oh, yes,' she agreed, trying to sound as lively and spirited as she usually did, 'it was really beautiful; I don't know how they do it!'  
  
'Certainly one needs the talent,' explained Professor Kelsey, beaming with pride. 'And these girls all have it. Would you like to try some before your first lesson?'  
  
Ginny explained her condition in a confused rush; told the other witch about her shakiness, the nausea that made her feel faint, and the coldness that hadn't left her bones since the accident on the Sedes Aeris.  
  
Even as she was still trying to find words to describe the clammy feeling, she knew it was no good by the way the professor's eyes lit up.  
  
'Come', she was commanded in a voice that cut off her own faltering one. Professor Kelsey stretched out a hand towards her and Ginny grasped it, fearing that she really couldn't get up on her own.  
  
After she had pulled her to her feet with surprisingly gentle force, the professor led her firmly to a small sofa that would probably seat three people. Ginny wondered, suddenly eager to detect a flaw in this perfect system, how only two people could travel in it. She had seen for herself how the chairs and couches only disappeared when they were full.  
  
But Professor Kelsey simply propped her feet up gracefully on the part of the seat that wasn't occupied, and while Ginny was still watching her and understanding, they left the Levitational Dance Studio.

* * *

During the brief journey, Draco's eyes had snapped shut automatically: he wasn't prepared, he had been thrown off his guard by the witch he now decided was insane. But as soon as he felt the rushing noise stop, he opened his eyes again. The witch knew he had cried when he was five years old, she didn't have to know that he was still a coward in some ways.  
  
The first thing he was aware of was that the headmistress was not looking at him. Instead, she was bent over two rolls of parchment, copying something from the one onto the other with a very ordinary quill, even though there was a magnificent one made out of a phoenix feather lying right beside it.  
  
Once he was sure she was immersed in her task, Draco quickly took in the rest of the room. The room was sparsely furnished, consisting only of the headmistress' ivory-coloured desk (which looked like it was made out of ivory, too, except that that was impossible), her matching chair, and a large glass closet, that was completely see-through. And empty. Also, one wall was one big window, through which streamed open sunlight, already turning red in the sunset. It glinted off the many crystals hovering in the air, and was diverted into different-coloured lines of light that made tiny rainbow-coloured points on the walls and floor. Not to mention the headmistress' bowed head, and his own hands.  
  
Draco's surroundings definitely unnerved him. But on the other hand, he had some time to adjust. Taking a deep but silent breath, he let his eyes unfocus and gaze off into the distance. This was just like the rigorous training his father had given him the last few years. Well, at least it would come in handy now.  
  
Then he did his best to lose his memories in a deep fog. Careful to feel nothing, not even satisfaction at his success, he started planning ahead answers to some of the questions she would in all probability ask him.  
  
Suddenly, he was aware that a point of light glinted somewhere else in his enemy's golden hair. She had lifted her head and was watching him with the big amber eyes her students had learned to fear – and love, though Draco did not know it.  
  
The power of her eyes when they met his was even stronger than he remembered it. They pierced right through the mist at a shadow of an image behind it. But the image was hazy: Draco couldn't see what it was, so neither could the professor.  
  
'Draco Malfoy,' she said slowly, as if trying to remember what the name meant to her. 'I'm Professor Sole, the Headmistress of Arx Aurea.'  
  
Wow, I didn't know that, thought Draco irritably. At the same time that his annoyance flashed up in his eyes, satisfied triumph appeared in Sole's. And the shadow picture flashed up instantly with a bright light, before he had his temper under control again and the fog clouded everything.  
  
. . . a younger Draco, standing defiantly before the slightly stooped form of Dumbledore . . .  
  
'Yes, tell me how my dear friend Professor Dumbledore is?' Sole was saying, smiling at him as if she was inviting him to take part in this game.  
  
Draco sucked in his breath, blinked for a brief second in which he carefully hid his memories and feelings once more, and then answered in a bored, unaffected voice: 'Old.'  
  
Sole had to smile at this remark, and replied with a little laugh: 'Oh, so am I. The school is getting old, and I was very young when I set it up.' She kept her eyes on him in expectation.  
  
But her opponent was prepared this time: although he did register surprise at the news that the school had been established by Sole herself, it couldn't penetrate the lazy, arrogant trance he had put himself into.  
  
'Was there any reason you called me here, Professor?' he drawled, hoping that he could end the wearisome conversation.  
  
'Yes,' was the prompt reply. 'You see, I like to get to know my students personally. Only then can I help them when they're in trouble. And only then can the school function the way it does.'  
  
Draco was carefully unmoved. 'Can't we just assume I won't get into trouble?' His voice came out without any inflection at all.  
  
The witch's eyes glinted. 'No,' she said emphatically. 'You already are in trouble, Mr Malfoy. Therefore I think it very improbable that you won't get into any.'  
  
Draco looked into her earnest gaze, bewildered. Trouble? Before he could stop it, his mind was racing, trying to find the reason for her mentioning trouble. And the cool shelter was lost. In its place, there was the vivid picture of a blond boy kneeling on the floor, kissing an auburn-haired girl as if his heart was being controlled by the passionate red light in the room.  
  
Still feeling Ginny's soft skin and satiny hair on his hands, Draco tore his head around, hurled himself out of the golden chair and back into it without looking at the headmistress again. And then the chair took him away, and the merciful darkness swept over him.  
  
Professor Sole looked intently at the spot where his chair had been a moment earlier, shrugged her shoulders in dismissal and picked up the phoenix-feather quill to write.

* * *

When they reached the Intersection, Ginny was surprised to find that her companion went straight to the big doors opening into the Entrance Hall. But she followed her eagerly, Malfoy being for the moment forgotten.  
  
Professor Kelsey led her straight through the 'treasure cove' to the biggest treasure of all: the mesmerizing diamond in the center of the floor.  
  
No sooner had Ginny caught sight of it than a deep force knocked her legs away from under her, and she slid to the smooth floor. Gazing at the diamond, she waited to fall into the depths of unconsciousness, as she had done so many times lately.  
  
But not this time. 'No, Ginny, don't!' commanded a voice so harsh that she only barely recognized it for Professor Kelsey's. Then surprisingly strong arms pulled her reluctant form up off the floor. The professor took her arm and led the stupefied Ginny right to the heart of the diamond, which glowed up with a thrill of power. There she let her charge sink onto the diamond's smooth, lighted surface and stepped back.  
  
Ginny, lying with her face against the mirror-like smoothness, felt the nausea and faintness subside; it was as if there had been a stormy ocean of fear and confusion inside her that was gradually ebbing away now. An electrifying force of both power and calmness, strength and beauty, filled the empty beaches inside that the waves had left. Her left palm, which was flat against the diamond, felt suddenly connected with millions of other hands that had been pressed against the ancient diamond. Ginny could almost follow their suffering, their joy, their anger, and their enlightenment.  
  
And then she seemed to wake up from a night of beautiful, restful dreams to Professor Kelsey's smiling face. Blinking in bewilderment, Ginny got up, noticing at the same time that the middle of the diamond had stopped glowing.  
  
'I didn't go to sleep, did I?' she asked the professor hesitantly. 'Or faint?' she added, then was suddenly aware that there was no weariness in her body, that in fact she felt stronger than she had all day.  
  
'No,' announced the witch happily. 'But the diamond always has a very soothing and regenerating effect: that's why I brought you to it. If you're done now, you should probably get back to your common room. No doubt you have work to do.'  
  
Before following Professor Kelsey's brisk stride out of the Entrance Hall, Ginny cast a long look back at the diamond, gleaming with unused power until someone else had need of it. It seemed to her as if on the diamond, she had been perfectly content, while now there were the old battles to fight. Especially against Draco Malfoy.

* * *

Draco was beginning to fear wearily that every day would be much the same at Arx Aurea. He had been sitting at this exact same spot on his bed the night before, feeling like hell, just as he was now. If things went on like this, he could seriously turn himself in at St Mungo's because of mental instability. If he wasn't going crazy, then the world around him definitely was. The idiotic kissing had proved that.  
  
Scowling about the unforgettable memory which now even his new headmistress had already seen, Draco had the sudden villainous urge to bully someone. At Hogwarts, there had always been somebody: if not Potter, Weasley or Granger, then Crabbe or Goyle.  
  
A sudden longing for the old Hogwarts made him cringe inside. He had always thought of it as a soft place with an idiot – a dangerous, but pathetic idiot – as a headmaster. But now he really knew how irritating a school could be. Inside the Hogwarts castle, he had been able to walk the corridors with an air of smugness and command about him, and loyal, if thick-headed, friends on either side. As for the Slytherin common room, after his father had bought the Slytherin team new brooms when he was taken on as a member, there he had ruled supreme.  
  
His homesick broodings were interrupted by the arrival of a guy who Draco remembered vaguely from the night before. He was one of the four people he shared the dormitory with, the others being Jason, R.W.D., and another boy who must be Tim.  
  
This boy had ash-brown hair that was falling into his eyes and a skinny build. At first, he didn't even notice that there was someone else in the room, and just hurried over to his trunk. Just then, Draco moved slightly, and his room-mate looked up from rummaging among his possessions, alarmed.  
  
One glimpse of the fear that radiated from the intruder into his private sulking, and Draco's bloodlust rose.  
  
Leaning forward from his high perch, eyes glinting evilly, he asked with malicious innocence: 'Isn't it bed-time already for little boys at your school?'  
  
The boy frowned, laughed nervously, coughed to disguise it and then finally started stuttering: 'Uh, no, uh, not actually . . . until later. Uh, much later.' He offered a lop-sided, companionable grin against Draco's wicked sneer.  
  
_Lame_, he thought, becoming even more excited. This guy didn't even know he was bullying him. This could be fun.  
  
'But you're not very reliable, are you? It must be hard to look at the time through that mat of – I suppose it's hair?' he added, feeling more and more at home in his drawling evil attitude.  
  
His victim was by now totally lost. He opened his mouth, staring at Draco in disbelief, and forced an extremely fake laugh.  
  
'Look, joking aside,' he said, half a minute late. 'There's no actual time for us to go to bed. It's just supposed to be quiet at ten o' clock.' He paused, peering nervously at Draco from underneath his hair. 'But, uh, we always use a sound-proofing spell,' he added.  
  
To Draco, the chance was irresistible. In his mind's eye, he could already clearly see the boy cowering, terrified, before him, rendered helpless by a simple flick of his wand. Because he had that power. He had been building it up over the last five years (more, if you counted practising on the house-elf), and now he could even scare the hell out of someone who had just known him for five minutes. Someone who didn't even know his powerful connections and his dangerous talents.  
  
He couldn't miss this opportunity. If there was one thing Draco couldn't and wouldn't be, it was insignificant. Lazily picking up his wand, he let himself float slowly off the bed and to the floor. His room-mate watched his descent warily, and even backed up a few steps in the direction of the two golden chairs in the dormitory.  
  
'Uh, well, I should be – I mean, I only came here for . . .' The babbling died away as Draco took a step forward.  
  
'So you've learnt sound-proofing spells already, have you?' Draco asked in mock interest. 'What other spells do you know, I wonder?' His wand started drawing eights in the air.  
  
The guy looked at it in out-right terror, seemed to finally realize what danger he was in, and made a dive for the nearest chair. But Draco had already guessed this action, and quickly pointed his wand at it, shouting: 'Accio chair!'  
  
In the last second, the chair shot across the floor as the jet of light from Draco's wand found it, and the other boy, who had been about to throw himself on it, staggered wildly, and collapsed in an undignified way onto the black-and-white tiled floor. He lay there, dazed for a second, which Draco used efficiently to perform a levitating spell on the second golden chair, causing it to rise slowly into the air and hover tantalizingly a foot over the body on the floor.  
  
'So,' said Draco calmly through a huge smirk, while the chair swayed from side to side with his wand, 'pay attention, I'm teaching you an important lesson. The more you have to fight for something, the more you appreciate it – **if** you ever get it.'  
  
And with a taunting laugh he made the chair speed over to the other one behind him, just as his 'opponent' feebly reached up for it.  
  
'What is wrong with you?' he gasped, scrambling to his feet. 'You got some kind of anger management problem?'  
  
He fought better when he was mad, Draco mused. At least, verbally. 'No,' he smirked, sardonic delight making his eyes shine. 'But you've got serious **fear** management problems.'  
  
The guy glared at him with sudden hatred. But instead of saying anything back to him, he pulled out his wand – moving much too slowly, Draco noted deprecatingly – and pointing it at Draco, bellowed: 'Expelliarmus!'  
  
He was, of course, too late. Already as he had been fumbling for his wand, Draco had slashed an X into the air in front of him. The spell bounced harmlessly off the air and, rebounding, very nearly hit its creator, who had to dodge, open-mouthed with astonishment.  
  
'How amazing,' drawled Draco in mock admiration, at the same time wondering exactly what spell he would hit his victim with next. 'I didn't think you were up to a first year spell like _Expelliarmus_.'  
  
There was just enough time for the boy's face to flush a brilliant red before Draco acted again. One yell of 'Amitti potentia!' and one blast of blue light later, the now thoroughly winded guy was lying on the floor, twitching violently and uncontrollably. Even his teeth were chattering jerkily, so that he couldn't speak. His attempts to get up only succeeded in his rolling over a couple of times.  
  
Looking disdainful, Draco walked slowly around him and picked up the wand he had dropped in a spasmodic twitch of his arm.  
  
As the guy on the floor saw him slowly twirling his own wand, his eyes, which he could still control, widened in fear and rage against the injustice.  
  
And Draco, looking into them for a brief moment, saw them as duplicates of Ginny's terrified, glassy eyes. The smug grin on his face faltered, and he felt sick instead of triumphant.  
  
Fighting the urge to just leap into one of the chairs and flee the ugly scene, he unwillingly muttered the counter-curse, leaving the boy lying exhausted, but still, on the floor, breathing rapidly.  
  
Then he seemed to remember in what position he was in, and struggled to get up, still watching his tormentor fearfully. Draco tossed him the wand, and gave one of the golden chairs such a shove that it skidded across the floor and hit the figure lying there in the shoulder. A loud groan of pain was heard, before the guy recovered and hastily climbed into the chair.  
  
Draco's cold eyes were watching him, and he said: 'I'm letting you go. You didn't beat me, remember that.'  
  
When the chair and its occupant were gone, he turned around and savagely kicked his trunk, which happened to be in the way. The pain in his toe enraged him even more.  
  
That stupid little chit of a Weasley was haunting him! No matter what he did, she was always there, keeping him from having fun, making his conscience poke him.  
  
The power he had felt so clearly before seemed to have escaped him altogether. In its place, his own bored voice echoed:  
  
_When will wizards learn that it is not the purest blood that flows through the bravest man? When will society cease to judge us by our birth, be it noble or humble? How long will we allow fear to dominate our souls and close our hearts forever?  
_  
He still didn't get it.

* * *

Good place to stop, no? Well, so maybe not, but at least it lets me finally update! Yahoo! (No, that was not an ad disguised as a cheer, it was a cheer) So, in the next chapter, look forward to some more 'strange' dreams, weird school lessons, and battles between our two lovable protagonists!  
  
Mucho thanks to all the numerous (_cough_ **3**) reviewers!  
  
**Wander Aimlessly** - nice name that's really interesting, you've put into 2 words what other ppl write pages about . . . So, here is more and I hope you're still alive and reading this!  
  
**Taunting Ave** - sniff you know what I love about writing on ff (besides the writing itself)? That there are these really nice reviewers out there (YOU) who leave such sweet reviews that I have to cry! Hope you can picture Draco as a Death Eater in this last scene, even though it wasn't a D/G. Are you kidding? Definitely '_torrid love and tears'_ – that's what I base my stories on. puts a finger to her lips ssh. . . don't give everything away! Think of all the poor readers who aren't as smart as you are. Won't say no more now. Well, your request has been heard, but sadly not put into action. . . I hope to do better next time! Luv ya!  
  
**SamiJo** – well, you did have to wait. . . now I can't wait to hear more feedback! But seriously, thanks for reviewing!  
  
Greetings to my dearest beta-reader (Arabian Knight) and the person this story is dedicated to (fallen phenoix)!!!  
  
With that I depart for what is probably going to be the next few months,  
  
Shooting Jewel 


	10. A School Day

A/N: I'm not only sorry for bringing this out so late, I also apologize for the outrageous fact that there are NO Draco/Ginny confrontations in this chappie. Actually, there isn't much interesting stuff in it at all. But I'll DEFINITELY try to bring more D/G into the story . . . maybe in the next chapter? Don't get your hopes up though, I'm so bad at sticking to what I say!

A School Day

Draco Malfoy was dozing through History of Magic. It wasn't quite as boring as back at Hogwarts – but then, the teacher wasn't a ghost stuck in his own routine, either. Instead, it was an eager young wizard, who was into things like 'communicating with the students' and 'bringing life to history' – or a pathetic loser who obviously hadn't made it past puberty, depending on whether you shared Draco's opinion or not.

His whole monologue seemed to consist of: 'And then, of course, the whole wizarding world was, like – the entire world of wizards was moving out to all these weird different places, like even to other continents, right, and then, of course, the question is, like – well, some of us ask ourselves – well, anyway, why?'

It was simply not worth wasting his time on. Draco gazed out of the window at the Quidditch field with unfocused eyes. He remembered yesterday's meeting with the Flying teacher and, glancing at his schedule, confirmed that he did have Flying next.

He itched to be up in the air again, to be playing Quidditch – to be doing anything that made him forget the vicious circles he had somehow managed to twist himself into. At one end lured the fiasco with Ginny Weasley – he had no idea how to get out of that one – and his disastrous meeting with his new Headmistress was closely connected to it. At the other end, he could see endless classes with new teachers he would have to impress, and even more endless weeks living with the anonymity he had here.

Quite suddenly, a small electric sharpness on his back made him wince slightly and come back from dreams of Quidditch. Turning around, he glared at the students sitting behind him, for the magical spark was undoubtedly the work of one of them.

Sure enough, R.W.D, or Steve, was grinning at him. Now that he had Draco's attention, he carefully lifted a piece of parchment into the air with his wand. Draco watched as it floated undetected into his opened hand, and then, with a quick glance to make sure the professor was still rambling on, turned it over.

Hey Dragon-boy, I dare you to climb out of the window and fly down to the Quidditch field without Stultus noticing.

Draco had to smirk in spite of himself at this childish note. Although he had to admit it was a fitting nickname for the History professor – his name was Stilt, and the Latin word 'stultus', meaning dumb, wasn't too far away from that. It was also very accurate.

Besides, the dare suited him. He was bored with this class, he wasn't learning anything anyway, his broom was on the floor beside him – the whole class had taken theirs with them in preparation for their next lesson – and he would be able to get up in the air 15 minutes sooner than he had hoped. Besides, he would show all his Fortuna classmates that he was not only smart Latin-wise, but that he was used to getting his own way. And always did get it.

So, he raised his hand, causing Stultus so splutter to a halt and point at him excitedly.

'Yes, yes, the kid from Hogwarts! What was your name again? Serpent?' he asked hopefully.

Draco burned with suppressed anger and embarrassment (Serpent? Had this guy been studying too much Muggle zoology?), but he spoke loudly over the laughter. 'Draco. Malfoy. May I open a window, Professor? It's kind of stuffy in here, can't think why.' He pointedly arched his eyebrows at the now flustered teacher, who quickly mumbled something about the heat and gave his permission, before bouncing off into the next monologue.

Feeling the eyes of almost the entire room on him, especially those of the girl who had sat in front of him in Latin and was starting to get annoying, Draco nonchalantly got up from his desk, picked up his broom, took the one step to the window and opened it. Pretending to lean out and enjoy the 'fresh air', he slipped his broom out of the window and, waving at R.W.D., hoisted himself up onto the window ledge and jumped onto his broom, swerving downwards immediately.

Ginny was not paying any more attention in her first class that morning than Draco was. Not that she found the lesson boring – they were having Healing with a witch who had started off by giving them an impassioned speech about the importance of Healing. But Ginny had not even tried to pay attention. She had had a dream again, one that badly needed thinking over.

Like in the first one, everything was grey and hazy at first. Then, she was leaning against a wall, bathed in red light, still vaguely feeling panic and nausea. And Draco was leaving; his back was turned towards her. She could feel herself slipping, losing her balance, and called to him, her feelings laid bare in her exhaustion: 'Draco!'

Then she felt what had to be her body falling to the floor. The hard contact numbed her – she couldn't move, couldn't speak.

But somewhere she was aware of Draco's presence, coming closer. Then she felt his hands, turning her over, and his fingers, touching her cheek. She opened her eyes to Draco's steady grey ones.

Draco. Her safety, the one she could trust more than anything. The worried look in his face made her smile. Not only was he here, right beside her, but he was worried about her. And he had come to save her again, his mere presence shining so brightly it eliminated her dark, vague fears.

'Thank you, Draco,' she whispered. Even though she wished she could show her gratitude better, the way his face's hardness melted and his eyes burned softly made her feel sure he knew what she meant.

Ginny felt her head slowly sliding from Draco's lap, and tried to reach for him in her weak state. But she needn't have bothered, because now he suddenly bent over her – and he was kissing her.

Her heart bounded with warmth in her cold body as his lips took the numbness out of hers. She had not known how dead she had been before flowering now in the heat of his passion. Finally she was experiencing the shivering delight of their faces, their mouths, touching.

Draco drew back, looking down on her, catching his breath. Longing for him, Ginny found she had the strength to put her hand on the warm nape of his neck and pull him back down to her. When he didn't move, she did what she would not have dared do before, and kissed him, soft and passionate by turns.

But her exertion had been too much. The new-found feelings of deep delight were being clouded by her dizziness. She could no longer concentrate on Draco, and darkness was hovering menacingly.

Though she inwardly protested against the injustice – how could she be taken away now, in this state of happiness and honesty? – there was nothing she could do to prevent it, and her mind turned into a black fog of nothing.

Ginny shook herself. There was something spooky going on, but she couldn't share her concerns with anyone – she would simply have to uphold the appearance of normalcy.

Staring at the heading 'Magical Healing' on the board, she automatically began to process the dream's information.

This was the second time her dream had fit perfectly into the time when she was unconscious. Either her subconscious mind was warped and invented dreams like this, or everything had really happened.

And that would mean she had done truly incredible things since leaving Platform 9 ¾ - called the dreaded enemy by his first name, had a normal conversation with him, and kissed him under the red lights of a private reading room.

The most unbelievable thing of all though, was that she couldn't figure out what that made her feel. Of course it was scary that she was doing things she had no control over, things that were way out of character for her. But on the other hand, she was strangely elated and bursting to tell somebody all about it. It was as if she had been trying to persuade herself all along that Draco Malfoy wasn't all bad. And now she had proof.

Ginny sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was all very pleasant fantasizing about a sweet, kind-hearted Draco, but the fact remained that there was also an evil, murderous-looking Malfoy. Until she could combine those two to one person she wasn't going to get very far with either of them. So it was best to just ignore Draco Malfoy as best she could, try not to faint again, and find a nice Arx Aurea boy who would take her mind off him.

Suddenly, her regular view out of the window was interrupted by an elegant figure swooping by on a broomstick, grinning evilly at the occupants of the room. As a gasp and a chuckle went up around the class, Ginny found herself smiling straight into the flyer's grey eyes, which widened for a second in recognition. A moment later, he was gone.

Turning back to face her teacher, Ginny felt her cheeks grow warm as if someone had caught her in an embarrassing situation. She hadn't meant to smile like that; she still didn't know why she had done it. Her stupid dreams must finally be getting to her.

One minute into her new resolution to ignore Draco Malfoy and she had already broken it.

Draco was just wondering why Ginny had actually smiled at him – seeing as the last thing she remembered from their last meeting was him threatening her – when a sharp explosion of sparks made him look down at the ground he was soaring over.

An Arx Aurea teacher was gazing up at him in grave consideration. Recognizing his Spells teacher, and calculating that he wouldn't get too much trouble from him, Draco descended deliberately slowly and lazily got off his broomstick.

'Professor?' he drawled, as if Cockle had called on him in class. At the back of his mind, he really was worried about what kind of punishment you got for skipping class at this school, but it was way too good an opportunity to miss. Teachers at small-scale schools like Arx Aurea had probably never even heard of students defying them outright.

To his surprise, Professor Cockle chuckled gently. Then, astonishing Draco even further, he sat down on one of the golden benches belonging to the stadium and motioned him to sit down, too.

When Draco, in his amazement, had obeyed, he faced him. 'Look, Draco, let's be frank. I already know more about you than you think, but some of the pieces of information don't make sense. I'm not presuming to know you,' he added, as Draco was furiously opening his mouth to speak, 'and I know that's what you students hate most of all. I was one once, after all.'

Draco yearned to say 'Yeah, a good, top-of-class one; that tells you so much about me', but he thought it wiser to hold it back and just look unimpressed.

'Don't get frustrated by Professor Sole's Legilimancy,' Cockle continued. 'Obviously it can be annoying – even some of the teachers have to watch out when they're talking to her. She uses it as a joke sometimes,' he said, pulling a wry grin. 'But it's like Professor Kupdin said yesterday when you left the Intersection – to know a man, you must have walked a thousand miles in his moccasins.' He looked at Draco expectantly.

'That's wonderful advice, I'll keep it in mind,' said Draco snidely. He couldn't figure out what it was with all these teachers anyway – why did every single one of them want a private discussion with him? Was the same thing happening to Ginny?

Draco sighed. Of course, his thoughts had to come back to her and his whole horrible mistake. But, seeing that the professor was staring off into the distance, he decided to ask after all.

'What did she mean by that?'

'It's an old Indian proverb. Professor Kupdin was saying that no matter how many flashes of your memories Professor Sole saw, you would still be your own man. She wouldn't actually know you at all.' He turned to Draco with a slight smile. 'Make sense?'

Draco shrugged. He hadn't really thought about it that way before and wasn't prepared to start doing it now. Sole was undoubtedly evil, and he was going to have to resist as much as possible.

'Anyway,' Cockle went on, 'Albus Dumbledore informed us that you weren't overall bad at school, that you didn't study much but relied on your intelligence to get you through exams, that you could be described as rather a bully, and that it was because you had trouble at home.'

Obviously Dumbledore thought he knew it all. 'Why should I have trouble at home?' Draco snapped, skimming over the other accusations and coming to the important one. If Dumbledore had revealed just what his 'trouble at home' was, his father's entire plan in sending him here would turn out to be useless. He would be marked a Death Eater's son again.

For a brief second, he wondered how Steve or Jason would react to that. Something told him they wouldn't be impressed. They could obviously tolerate his arrogance, but they would never accept the fact that Lucius Malfoy was one of Voldemort's notorious supporters, and that he was very much following in his father's footsteps.

'He believes you have certain – conflicts with your father,' Cockle answered.

'Wow. That's an amazingly personal observation. Ask ten guys if they have conflicts with their fathers, nine will say yes.'

'But only one Draco Malfoy has conflicts that interfere with his schoolwork,' the teacher said calmly.

Draco's mind was whirling. If Dumbledore had noticed things like fits of bad mood after a letter from his father had arrived and sleepiness the next day, he was obviously keeping a closer watch on him that he had realized. Maybe that was why Lucius had moved him to Arx Aurea, away from Dumbledore's watching eyes.

It was also obvious that Dumbledore would have never told him all this – he knew too well what information like that might lead to. In spite of all his senility, Dumbledore was sharp, Draco grudgingly admitted. Only at a school with soft-headed teachers like this could he have found out these things.

'How does he know it interferes with my schoolwork?' Draco asked, playing the sulky kid, but actually baiting for more information.

'Well, teachers see a lot more than students like to think,' Cockle began, grinning wisely again. Then he suddenly stood up. 'Speaking of which, you better make a good impression on this teacher here. At least, if you want to get into the Quidditch team. So long, Draco; if you want to talk to me about this kind of stuff again, just drop by my office.'

Draco watched Cockle walking away and Professor Laws, accompanied by a group of students clutching broomsticks, advancing. Even from a distance he could see the severe, calculating look on the Flying teacher's face.

He got up from the bench and gripped his Eagle V9 – the latest model of a Firebolt variation – more tightly. This was going to be tough.

The Intersection was full of people searching for chairs, forming groups of discussion and laughter, and appearing and vanishing before her eyes. Ginny was looking around rather forlornly: due to the complicated thoughts all contradicting each other inside her head, it had taken her a minute to realize that class was over, and she couldn't find her friends now.

'Ginny?' An anxious voice spoke behind her. When she turned around in relief, she was surprised to see that it wasn't Rachel, Tiffany or Vanessa. Instead, three slightly embarrassed-looking guys in Fortuna colours stood in front of her.

'Hey,' one of them said, smiling broadly. 'You are Ginny from Hogwarts, right?'

'Uh, yeah. How come?' she asked rather nervously.

'It's just that we seem to have misplaced your schoolmate, Draco Malfoy – ring a bell? In fact – er, he left class early and we're not sure he knows where he's going,' the guy explained.

Draco Malfoy. There was certainly no escaping him. And this sounded a lot like something he would pull.

'Well, I certainly don't know where he is, I saw him flying past the classroom window in Magical Healing, but god knows where he went from there.' She rolled her eyes. When they didn't say anything and continued to stand around her, she added, 'I wouldn't worry about him if I were you. Draco Malfoy always does stuff like this, and he always gets out of it, too.'

Another boy grinned. 'He certainly won't get in trouble from our History teacher – have you met Stilt aka Stultus yet?'

Ginny had, in fact, and they spent a few minutes laughing over his absurdities. When a pause followed, Ginny began to wonder exactly what these classmates of Draco wanted. They could have left ages ago, but they seemed insistent on staying as long as possible. And something in the way they were glancing at her and playing with the hems of their sleeves suggested to her femininity that they weren't just madly interested in learning everything about students from Hogwarts.

This belief was strengthened when a guy with a born charmer's smile and red curls held out his hand. 'My name's Steve Primac, by the way. That's Tim Subcal, and that's Sam … what's your last name again?' He turned to the third person, who was more in the background.

'Curtley,' the guy answered, pushing copious amounts of hair out of his face.

'Nice to meet all of you,' Ginny smiled, trying to suppress the strong desire to burst out laughing. This was certainly a twist: Draco's classmates were apparently anxious to meet her. That was something that had never happened at Hogwarts, for obvious reasons.

'Anyway, guess we'd better head off to class,' Tim sighed, picking up his broom which he had laid down on the floor. 'We have Flying next, remember? So that means Quidditch team try-outs.'

'Oh, I've already gone through that,' Ginny put in. 'Were any of you on the team last year?'

All three of them shook their heads gloomily. 'We're not a great Fortuna year for Quidditch,' Steve remarked, 'though Jason Asper – he's in our year, too – nearly made it last time. And now we've got our dragon boy,' he concluded, grinning wickedly.

Tim started laughing, and after Ginny realized that he meant Draco, she joined in, imagining his face when he heard this ridiculous nickname. But Sam Curtley rolled his eyes in disgust and glowered. When he saw Ginny looking at him, he quickly shrugged and started inspecting his wand.

After the boys left (with not very subtle hints about 'See you around' and 'See you in the common room, we'll tell you how the try-outs went') Ginny had to giggle. It was a new and very pleasing feeling to be the one who was sought-after for a change.

After the trial Quidditch game, when Professor Laws was speaking individually with the students, Draco was sitting on the grass, experiencing a mixture of superiority and anxiety. The game had not exactly gone the way he had planned it, but, given the circumstances, he thought he had done well. Now it depended on whether the Flying teacher also thought of it like that.

'Hey Draco, what did you actually do while we were stuck in History?'

He had been joined by R.W.D. and another guy from his dormitory, Tim.

'I looked in the windows at all the snotty, obedient little kids doing their lessons,' Draco replied lazily. He didn't want to talk about the weird conversation he'd had with Professor Cockle.

'We ran into your friend Ginny, by the way,' Tim said casually. 'She told us you wouldn't get into any trouble.'

'That's me,' agreed Draco with a smirk. Then his brain finally registered the whole meaning. 'She talked about me?' he asked, staring at his companions.

'Well, duh!' Steve rolled his eyes. 'What the hell else were we supposed to talk to her about? The only thing we knew we had in common with her was you.'

Draco's brain made another connection. 'You mean you were using me as an excuse to meet her?'

'Well, it certainly worked,' R.W.D. grinned. 'We've already arranged to meet in the Common Room later on.'

Draco heard his name called just as he was going to remark that if anything, he found that embarrassing.

'Good luck,' Tim told him as he got to his feet. 'We really hope you made it,' Steve added. 'Bit stupid not having any of us represented in the team.'

Trying to get over his uneasiness, Draco dropped a last comment: 'I saw you guys playing Quidditch. No way can I represent you – I have my pride, you know.'

Their outrage and laughter didn't make him feel much better, but at least he could face the grim-looking Flying teacher with a smirk.

After Ginny had hurriedly arrived – just in time – at her Levitational Dance lesson, which the Fortuna girls had together with the ones from Fortitudo, Rachel immediately prodded her and whispered: 'What did Steve Primac and the other guys from the 4th year want from you?'

Ginny waited until Professor Kelsey had turned away to read out critiques her Levitational Dance Company had received before whispering back: 'They asked me if I knew where Draco Malfoy was.' Then, out of sudden curiosity: 'Why? What about it?'

'They're so cool,' breathed Rachel, but before she could go on Tiffany nudged her and whispered loudly: 'They are so not, I used to be in the same year with them, remember? OK, they're funny, but otherwise, they're just a bunch of idiots.'

Startled by what Tiffany had said, Ginny turned around to her to ask: 'If you used to be in their year, how come you're with us now?'

'Yes, Miss Weasley? Do you have a question?' Professor Kelsey asked sweetly.

'Um-' Ginny hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to pretend she did want to ask something or just to keep quiet. Finally she blurted the first question that came to her mind: 'I was wondering – do you choose students from our year for the Company, too?'

Obviously the teacher was satisfied with this, she beamed at Ginny, displaying basically all her teeth, and answered: 'Naturally, if I see that any of you has talent. Now, please all form rows of four in the centre of the room.'

Just as Ginny had found a spot further back, Tiffany brushed past her and whispered one word to her: 'Flunked.'

This caused Ginny to be surprised and worried: not even the students who didn't seem to have any grasp of magical abilities (i.e., Crabbe and Goyle) flunked at Hogwarts – everyone she knew scraped by somehow. And here was Tiffany, who certainly seemed intelligent enough, having failed. Maybe the standards were a lot higher at Arx Aurea than Hogwarts.

She sighed, and tried to pay special attention to the professor's instructions. Not only was she determined that she wouldn't fail, she also was excited to be let in on the secret of Levitational Dance's beauty.

'So,' Professor Kelsey went on, 'imagining this state of grace, raise yourselves on your tip-toes – keep your balance, ladies and gentlemen – and hold your hands out above your head as if you were pulling yourself up on something. Then find a level where you can pull up, and raise yourself up in the air.' She demonstrated, and was soon hovering a good ten inches above the ground.

'Now you try.'

'What are we supposed to pull ourselves up on? Oh, yeah, air. Right.' The loud whisper came from behind Ginny, and giggling followed it.

Ginny attempted pulling herself up, but lost her balance very quickly. Not that people around her seemed to be having more luck. There was much rolling of eyes and mutterings of 'this is stupid' going on.

Frustrated, she thought back to Professor Kelsey's words: '. . . imagining this state of grace. . . ' Ginny suddenly remembered the concentration, the lightness, and the ethereal beauty the dancers had portrayed yesterday. Maybe that was the key.

This time, she made sure she was standing securely. Then she reached her arms up and felt, concentrating all the time on the beauty of the movement. Suddenly, as she moved her hands higher, she felt a certain solidity in the air, as if she could support herself on it. Trying not to let her triumph and amazement at this discovery ruin her concentration, she rested the palms of her hands firmly on the air and imagined lifting herself up into the air.

A rush of warmth swept through her, and she was aware of her feet leaving the floor. As she pressed gently on the air, her head rose above her hands. Soon she was hovering high up in the air, looking down at the amazed faces turned up towards her.

'Well done, Miss Weasley! That's excellent for the first lesson!'

As the teacher's voice rang out, Ginny looked around quickly, startled, and her concentration was broken. She fell down heavily, but managed to land on her hands and knees.

A group of people crowded around her, concerned for her, but the blackness which had hovered in front of Ginny's eyes for a few moments after the fall vanished quickly, and Professor Kelsey called the students back to their rows.

Ginny rubbed her slightly smarting knee, but inside she felt things had seldom looked better: she had almost been picked for the Quidditch team, some apparently very nice, good-looking older guys had wanted to meet her, and now she had grasped the foundation to Levitational Dance and experienced the exhilaration of it. Now her only worries were Latin and Malfoy. And since she was sure that she could overcome the first one, there was only Draco left to tackle. Unfortunately this was not a problem she wanted to investigate. There were too many confused emotions attached to the contradicting dilemma of her dream versus his threat of murder.

No, Ginny mused, Draco would only become a problem if she continued thinking about him.

Professor Laws' face radiated disapproval. 'No responsible player uses a foul in the crucial moment, that's entirely self-centred –'

'Look,' Draco interrupted impatiently, 'so I took a risk. They were blocking me while the other Seeker was heading for the Snitch. Okay, so I elbowed one of them. But that was the only way we could have won!' He was fully furious by now. His plan had been brilliant – and the Flying teacher didn't appreciate it. The thug on the opposing team hadn't even known what hit him, and his yell had been loud enough so that not only the other guy blocking him turned around, but also the other Seeker. Which left Draco free to catch the Snitch. He remembered the feeling as he had zoomed past them, that triumph that the perfect execution of the perfect plan brought.

'I'm not saying you're not a good Quidditch player, Malfoy,' Laws said, staring into the distance. 'Or a cunning strategist,' he added quietly, more to himself than to anybody else. 'But I can't afford the risk of putting you on the team if there's the chance of you using a foul resulting in our disqualification.' He stared at Draco very seriously. 'The question is, can I trust you not to do that?'

'No problem, sir.' Draco tried to look innocent. As long as he got on the Quidditch team, he could play however he wanted.

'I wasn't asking you, I was asking myself,' the teacher replied smoothly. 'I certainly don't trust you to tell the truth.'

Then he seemed to come to a decision. 'Okay, wise guy, you're on the team.' As Draco smirked, he added: 'On probation, though. Any sort of misbehaviour – even outside of class – and I'll have absolutely no scruples about kicking you out.'

'You won't regret it,' Draco drawled in an over-confident way. Inside, he felt as if he had got the worse end of the deal. Was it worth keeping out of trouble just to stay on the Quidditch team?

'Practice starts Thursday after school,' Professor Laws informed him. 'Oh, and by the way, Professor Callidam wants you in her office.'

A/N: Any criticism, suggestions, whatever, press the 'Review' button at the bottom of this page, k?

Especially these people who already have reviewed, it shows that people do follow my story and don't get bored with waiting around for a new chapter:

maliciousdragon - OF COURSE something will happen between our beloved Draco and Ginny, otherwise what would be the point of my story? j/k Need any help with the title? What is your story about?

alianne – yeah, I guess they don't like each other . . . they just snog. j/k But they will learn to, I can tell you that much!

JB-LIRIMAER -If that was the only problem with my story I'd be really happy. . . sadly there's a lot wrong with it. Glad you like it, though. Don't worry, I'm also a huge fan of fluff, I couldn't live without it, so of course this story will contain some too.

CassieOwls – Bad girl Shooting Jewel didn't write soon . . . but she did write, that's the important thing to remember!

picklesniper – you're right, I think it would be more fun to walk around, too. I just wanted to make it different from Hogwarts is all. Have fun reading this, if you get around to it!

Meg-goddess – thanks, that's actually a huge compliment as the new school is (almost) all my own invention. Sorry, no action, next chapter!

Sannikex – well, HP is a popular area and D/G is a popular ship. So don't worry about it. I know, I'm really happy about the reviews, they give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Anyway, no, it doesn't help as you can see. I always try, but it never works out. sighs

akuweaselgirl – evil Draco is fun, I know!

mell8 – sorry for the delay, I hope you like this chapter as much!

Faithful Arabian Knight has already given her criticism, suggestions, etc. (quite a lot of them, actually), so this chapter is FINALLY ready to go!

Everybody have a happy year 2005 and long live FanFiction!

Shooting Jewel


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